Missed Years
by Rinne-Kami
Summary: The act of one night gave birth to their future. And now, with years past since that one night, they were left with years to return. Seven years of love to find, seven years of trust to rebuild, and seven years of fatherhood to return.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N:**_ Yo! So in my on-going quest to avoid updating any of my older fics, I have created a new fic. Well I say created, but it was heavily inspired by a fic a read... pffffff must have been about 5 years ago and I don't think it's on this site any more, so if any of you have read that particular fic and recognise some of its plot lines I hope you'll go 'Hey, I remember that!'

The title of the story is open to change, but it will do for now.

Anyways on with the show;

* * *

"Okay, instant ramen for Bolt, sunflower seeds for Himawari, new shoes for the both of them for school…" She listed the last few items thrown in her shopping cart, trailing slowly down each aisle carefully making sure not to miss anything on her large list. "All I need now is…" She looked up high towards her favourite brand of a particularly feminine item, it appeared the store had changed their items around, as the item, once at her eye level, now sat on the highest shelf, far out of her small frame's reach.

She jumped a few times, hoping to knock one of them off, but couldn't get high enough to even graze it with the tip of her slender fingers.

She frowned sadly as she looked up at the item still. She wasn't sure whose idea it was to place an important item in every woman's life so far out of an average woman's reach. And if she had the confidence to make a complaint about it, she certainly would!

"Billie Jean is not my lover…" She heard a masculine voice singing quietly to himself, she turned, seeing a tall blonde man with short spiky hair, wearing a pair of baggy denim three quarter length pants, a baggy white shirt that appeared much too large for him, as the bottom of the shirt went past his waist and on his feet were a pair of black sandals.

"She's just a girl who said that I am the one…" He was still singing to himself as he moved closer to her, a smaller shopping basket clutched in his hands. He stood next to her, he was a good head and shoulders taller than her.

"But the kid is not my son…" With ease, he reached up and grabbed a pack of the very items she herself was desperately struggling in vain to reach. He lazily threw it into his basket and began to walk off.

"W-Wait!" She called after him, but he wasn't listened, she took a few hurried steps and gently poked him on the shoulder.

He turned quickly enough, giving her a weird look. And that was when she finally caught a glimpse of his eyes. He had miraculous deep blue eyes, yet seemingly warm and bright at the same time. His eyes and he yellow hair together, it painted a sort of view of the sun over the sea.

He pulled his earphones out, throwing both of them over his shoulders before giving her the biggest, warmest, kindest smile she had ever seen a stranger give. "Yo! You okay?" He asked kindly and quite loudly, beaming that smile still.

She stood frozen for a second, almost mesmerized by his smile. "S-S-Sorry…" She composed herself, shaking her head slightly to get her mind jogging again. "The item you just got, would you mind…?" She didn't finish her sentence, instead opting for staring upwards towards the item.

He followed her action, before grinning widely again. "Of course!" He grinned again, moving back to the shelf, reaching to grab another box of the items, before handing it to her. "Whose bright idea was it to put them up there? What an idiot!"

"T-Thank you." She smiled back gratuitously, placing the item into her cart.

"Don't mention it." He gave her a small, almost cheeky wink before placing his earphones back off and strolling down the aisle.

"La-da-da da-dum da-dum, la-da-da da-dum da-dum-dum." She watched him hum to himself in a cheery tone as he strolled away, she couldn't help but smile to herself as she watched him leave.

* * *

"Okay! So that totals to 18000 Yen please!" The cashier beamed happily towards her, not noticing the eyes of the woman in front of her widen at the amount requested.

"H-How much?" The woman asked quietly, her eyes darting fearfully towards the growing cue behind her.

"18000 Yen, if you please?" The cashier spoke in a less cheerful tone.

"Um, um just a minute…" She began rooting through her bag, cursing herself inwardly. She hadn't brought that much cash with her, she quickly pulled out her wallet, taking out her bank card with a heavy sigh, the money she had kept in her bank was to be used for a new suit for the start of her new job. She couldn't risk going into her overdraft again, which was a certainty with the amount requested.

She continued staring at her bank card, trying to hide the sadness on her face, without a doubt she would have to lend some extra money off her cousin again this month.

"Hey come on lady, we ain't got all day!" She was snapped out of her trance by the angry shouting of the cue behind her.

"S-Sorry!" She answered back with a jolt, and in her stupor she had dropped her bank card onto the floor to the audible groans of the people stood waiting _patiently_ for her.

She bent down to pick up her bank card, and as she rose she was met with the sound of paper being printed. She stared in confusion as she watched her receipt being printed off, torn out of the machine and handed to her with a once again cheerful cashier.

"H-How?" She asked in a wonder towards the cashier.

"Uhh… that guy there…" The cashier turned, pointing towards the exit, more specifically towards a blonde man currently walking through the doors. "As you were picking up your card, he just leaned over me and swiped his card through."

"Thank you." She answered back quickly, packing all her bags into her cart once again before speeding towards the exit, hoping to catch him.

She left the store, looking around the car park outside, luckily she saw him, still strolling leisurely towards his car. "W-Wait!" She shouted towards him, pushing her cart in his direction.

He turned straight away this time, pulling the single earphone out of his ear. He scratched the back of his head bashfully, grinning once again. "Damn, I was hoping for a silent getaway!"

"W-Why?" She asked curiously as she approached him, twice today this stranger had showed her kindness, the second time being without a request.

"Well I was in the self-service and I saw you…" He began with a toned down smile. "The way you were staring at your bank card, I don't wanna sound rude but I figured things might be hard for you. So I just gave you a helping hand."

"B-But I can't repay you for this." She answered back, nibbling on her lower lip slightly.

"I wasn't going to ask you to." He grinned once again, closing the back door of his car after placing his own shopping bag in the back seat.

"T-Thank you." She smiled once again, something about this man, she just couldn't stop the need to smile towards him.

"Like I said, don't mention it." He grinned again, lifting his arms behind his head. "Anyways I guess you want to be going."

"Y-Yes, I have to get a bus to town." She smiled again towards him.

"Oh, you live in town or something?" He asked innocently.

"No, I have to go to own to get a new suit. I am starting a new job on Monday." She answered honestly, not entirely sure why she was informing him of this.

"Wait, there must be at least seven bags there, that's got to be what, like three weeks' worth of shopping there. And you're just gonna hoist it all round town?" He asked with a look of surprise plastered across his face. He turned to face his car, then back to her again. "I was going to town myself, and I'd offer you a lift back to your place so you could drop that stuff off then take you to town, but you look smart enough not to get into cars with strangers…"

"So!" His suddenly loudly voice gave her a small startle. "My name's Naruto Namikaze! I'm twenty-five years old! I work at Dattebayo Lifestyle Management and Recreation Centre! My favourite foods are Ramen and Zenzei! If I'm not eating at home I'll be almost exclusively eating at Ichiraku's Ramen in town! Nice to meet ya! Now that I'm not a stranger, do you want that lift?"

"Y-You are still kind of a stranger…" She mumbled back towards him. "But that would be very helpful, and I would be extremely grateful if you would."

"Great!" He flashed her another beaming smile, pressing a button on his car keys so the trunk would open. "Stick your stuff in the back and let's get going!"

* * *

"So just a left here?" Naruto asked curiously, being answered by a meek nod by the woman next to him. "I'm sorry, I forgot to ask your name?"

"I-It's Hinata. Hinata Hyuuga." She answered back with a small smile. "I'm also twenty-five like you."

"Cool." He replied with a grin. "So you said you were going to town for a new suit for a new job you're starting. Nervous? Is it your first job?"

"No, I have done some part time work beforehand. And nervous...? I suppose I am, everyone is nervous when starting a new job. I shouldn't be though. My cousin got me the job." She responded honestly.

"That's great you have a cousin so close to you!" He grinned once again. "I'm an only child myself, and my cousin, yeah she's great, but only in small doses, after that it just gets frustrating listening to her pine on about how dreamy her boss is."

She smiled back in return, not really sure how to respond. "J-Just park up here, this is my apartment complex."

The man looked up at the size of the building. "Jeez, you want a hand with your bags? This is one big complex."

"T-that would most kind of you, Naruto-san." She smiled back in return.

"No problem! What floor are you on?" He asked casually, stepping out of his car towards the trunks before taking all of her bags into his hands.

"T-The 26th…" She responded in a careful tone, watching his eye twitch rapidly.

He let out a heavy voice, and spoke in a voice she believed he hoped she would not hear. "Of course you are… I'm guessing you don't have an elevator?"

"Oh no, we do have one." She tried her best not to smile when she saw his face light up again. "B-But it's currently out of order…."

* * *

"Here we are." She spoke from the top of the flight of stairs leading to the 26th floor.

"Great!" He panted behind her, at the bottom of the stairs, with a heavy groan he began the final ascent, after reaching the top he trudged weakly behind dropping her bags just outside her door. "I'll just wait for you out here, if you come back and I'm not breathing don't worry, I went out of this life happy."

She couldn't help but giggle lightly towards him. "You may come inside and wait if you'd like? There's a couch you can rest on."

"Really?! Thank you so much!" He looked at her with starry eyes, before kicking his shoes off and following her into her apartment.

It was pretty small, the lounge and dining room fit into the same area, leading to a very small kitchen. The bedrooms and bathroom seemed to be down a small, narrow hallway, as he only saw four other doors inside the apartment.

He sat down on the couch, looking towards a small TV. Surrounding were pictures of Hinata and two children, sometimes they were together, sometimes it was just the two children, other times it was Hinata and one of the children. In other pictures other people appeared in the picture, a man with long brown hair and eyes like Hinata was the most prominent person.

But the kids. Naruto just couldn't put a finger on it, but they looked… familiar? It was a boy and a girl, the girl with short dark blue hair flaring out at the sides with straight bangs and hime-cut framing her face. A green twin bead headband was wrapped around a small lock of hair jutting out at the top of her head. She had bright blue eyes and in every picture she was smiling a warm cute smile.

The boy on the other hand, in some pictures he looked annoyed, other pissed off, but most he looked happy. He had thick, spiky, wavy hair that jutted out at the sides, like the girl a single thick lock of hair jutted up at the top of his head. His eyes weren't as bright as the girl, they were a duller blue, almost lilac in colour.

"You said you were going to town, Naruto-san… are you sure you won't be late after waiting around for me?" He heard Hinata call from the kitchen, putting away the groceries.

"No, I only have to go to work. Don't worry about it." He called back to her, still looking at the pictures of the children hanging from the walls.

"You can't be late for work, Naruto-san." She said as she placed a glass of water on the table in front of him. "What would your boss think?"

The blond man shrugged his shoulder in return. Giving her a small grin. "I wouldn't worry, Hinata, I'm pretty sure he'll be cool with it!" He beamed towards her again, before he turned back to the pictures on the wall. "If you don't mind me asking, who are the kids in all these pictures?"

"…T-They are mine…" She seemed too hesitant to respond to his question, looking down towards her feet, she began prod her index fingers together, like a schoolgirl who was in trouble.

"Really?" He looked bag at her in mild surprise, before looking at the pictures of the children again. "Um… How old are they now?"

"They're both seven now. I had twins, my father was a twin as well, and the doctor said twins commonly run in the family." She responded back to him in a quiet mumble.

"Jeez, you must have been what, eighteen when you had them?" He stood up from the couch and moved towards the pictures, getting a closer look at the pictures. "I don't want to sound rude, but you must have missed a lot to take care of them…"

"S-Sometimes I feel like that…" She moved to stand next to him, she began to smile happily at the pictures of the children. "But I have never once thought that would rather have what I have missed rather than have them. They bring me so much joy."

She looked towards him, seeing him smile softly as well. "What are their names?"

She smiled once again, pointing towards the girl. "Her name is Himawari, she is very kind, although very shy sometimes." She smiled at the picture of the girl, before pointing to a picture of the boy looking particularly grumpy. "This is the elder Bolt. He is… something. He isn't afraid of anything, he's very loud and energetic and makes friends very easily. It seems when they were developing he kept all the confidence to himself. He can be a troublemaker though…"

"Those are great names. Himawari has this really warm smile, like the sun…" He smiled towards the pictures. "And Bolt… Where did you come up with his name?"

"My cousin, Neji, when I became pregnant he took care of me, he took me into his home, he has helped take care of these children. It wasn't much, but it felt right to name my son in reference to him."

"I think that's really cool…" He smiled towards her again. "So where's dad in these pictures? Or is he the fantastic photographer behind all these pictures?"

"Um… Um… T-They do not have a father…"

"Oh crap, I'm sorry…" He looked back at her sadly, regretful of what he had just asked. "Me and my big mouth huh?"

She stared back at his sad face, looking downhearted towards the ground. "W-What about you, Naruto-san? D-do you have a wife, or girlfriend? A-any children?" She asked, trying to break them out of the awkward silence created.

"Yeah I got a girlfriend," He responded with a small smile. "She's great and all, but things have been rough recently, but then again I'm not one to not put up a fight for something I care about! And no kids, but I can't wait to have them though!"

She smiled back towards him happily, seeing his demeanour perk back up. Gloominess really didn't suit this man. "I've finished putting away the groceries that need to stay frozen or refrigerated. The rest can wait until I return from town."

"Okay! Let's getting going then, Hinata!"

* * *

"Thank you, Naruto-san… For all you've done today." She smiled towards him again, there was something contagious about his smile, and it made something build up inside her, like a fire warming her from the inside.

They both stepped out of his car from his parking spot in the car park. "Don't mention it, Hinata. Now I really should be going otherwise I'll get chewed out at work!" He grinned again, locking his car remotely via the key before walking away from the blue haired woman. "Good luck at your new job, Hinata!"

"Thank you, Naruto-san! I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time." She answered back to him as he began to get further and further away.

He spun on his feet quickly, facing her as he continued to walk backwards away from her. "I keep telling you not to mention it! It was great meeting you, Hinata! Maybe we'll bump into each other again-ttebayo!"

Her eyes widened in utter shock as he spun back round, guffawing loudly to himself. _'No… it couldn't be…'_

"_I'm glad my friends convinced me to come out tonight! If I hadn't, I never would have met you-ttebayo!"_

* * *

**A/N:** Ahoy, well chapter 1 is ago, what do you think? 3 guesses who Hinata's kids' dad is?

Few things to discuss:

Namikaze - Yes Naruto is a Namikaze and yes Kushina and Minato are still alive

Naruto's cousin - Yes it's Karin and she will be making an appearance soon.

Naruto's girlfriend - Yes he has a girlfriend and No it is not Sakura

18000 Yen - About 153 US Dollars

Obviously this is chapter 1, so much needs to be developed, so is it worth a continue?

Anyways, until next time


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Yo! So the first chapter was more well received than I had imagined it would be, and I already had Chapter 2 written up and ready, I was just seeing the reaction and seeing if it was worth continuing. With 10 reviews I felt it was work a second chapter updates. So here we go!:

* * *

"_Is it you!?" Hinata grasped a blonde man's face who had randomly passed her on the street, the man's dark blue eyes looked down towards her swollen stomach, easily five or six months pregnant. "Do you remember me? From Hamura's six months ago?"_

"_Uh…. Uh…" The man's eyes darted continuously between her pregnant belly and her face filled with relief. "Listen girly, I don't know who you think I am, but I assure you I'm not him. I don't even know where who this Toneri is."_

"_Hinata!" A blonde girl darted next to the blue haired girl, pulling her away from the confused man. She smiled apologetically towards the man. "I'm so sorry about this, hormones raging and everything…"_

"_No it's all right." He smiled back weakly, taking a step back from the two girls, giving the blue haired girl another regretful smile. "I'm sorry, I hope you find the guy you're looking for…" He uttered out before walking away._

"_Hinata, that guy must have been in his late thirties, you can't just go harassing every guy you see just because he has blonde hair and blue eyes." Ino almost scolded the blue haired girl, who looked down towards the ground in embarrassment._

"_I know… but I just can't help but hope… that I'll bump into him one day… then we can talk about what to do with t-this…" Her hands moved to cradle round her swollen belly, a small tear flickered from her eye and dropped towards the ground._

* * *

"Hinata, I thought you gave up looking for him when Bolt and Himawari were born?" Ino sat next to her on the couch, flipping her long blond hair backwards before taking a sip of the glass of wine on her hands.

"B-But I'm telling you, this time… it really felt like it could have been him…" Hinata replied quietly, her cousin had offered to take her children for the night so she could catch up with her friends, Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno. "There was something about him… It made me feel like I did when I met him all those years ago…"

Ino Yamanaka, she had known her since they were children, now at twenty-five, Ino was blonde, lean and beautiful. The type that could catch anyone's eye, and she had done that in the famous artist, Sai. They had only been dating a short while, and Ino had yet to find out his real name, as Sai was a pseudonym he operated under. Ino's family ran a successful chain of flower shops across the country, and Ino currently ran the shop closest to home.

Sakura Haruno had a head of pink hair, unlike herself or Ino, she had not come from money, however her parents had put everything they could into getting Sakura into the private school they attended together. Sakura was a genius in her eyes, and it was shown when Sakura was offered a scholarship to a medical school ran by Tsunade Senju, perhaps the most world renowned physician.

"I thought it was the alcohol that made you feel the way you did for him…" Ino grumbled out, obviously not enjoying the subject being brought up again, she had seen her blue haired friend go through so much pain and heartache throughout the ordeal, she didn't want to see her go through all of it again. "You're being awfully quiet about this, Sakura?"

"You know what I think about it, Hinata." Sakura responded quite bluntly, taking a sip of the red wine in her own glass. "I've offered you a paternity test in the past, but you turned them down. I even offered you one as soon as your children were born, if you truly wanted to find him you should have done it then. If you approach this guy and tell him he's the father of your kids when he's not, it could cause a lot of problems. Plus, it's not fair on Bolt and Himawari, putting them in a position where they get their hopes up to finally meet their father and it turns out it's not him. This guy could be him yes, but it could also not be him. The guy you're hoping to find, their father. Truthfully, Hinata, he could be anywhere, even dead. My advice is get a paternity test first, get your confirmation from that first before you approach him about the subject."

"I-I suppose your right…" Hinata looked down again solemnly, contemplating the subject. Yes, this Naruto had reminded her of the boy she gave herself to, the boy who fathered her children, but Sakura was right, he may not be him, she was foolish enough to not ask the boy his name when they had met.

"I don't see why you'd want him around, Hinata." Ino spoke loudly. "You've got a good thing going already, and Bolt and Himawari are happy. What if bringing him into the picture makes them unhappy?"

"You're right, Ino-chan." Hinata smiled towards her long-time friend. "But I would like to give Bolt-kun and Himawari-chan the option of getting to know their father. And I would like to give him the option of being a part of their lives. That is all I want from him."

* * *

"Come on, guys! It's Saturday, we've been here for hours!" Naruto whined loudly, seeing he sun set outside the window of the meeting room he had currently found himself contained in.

"That's because someone turned up three hours late to our meeting." A thin black eyebrow rose with annoyance. "Now stop whining, I want some peace from it before I go home to that troublesome woman so she can whine at me as well."

"I own this place, you'll wait as long as I want." Naruto grumbled quietly to himself, Shikamaru hard stare boring into him. Shikamaru Nara was his CEO of Dattebayo, and he had hired his long-time friend for a multitude of reasons, the first being he was the only person he knew besides his dad with a business degree, another was the fact that he was sure Shikamaru would be okay with his occasionally tardiness. But when Shikamaru got into his serious mode he was having none of it.

"It didn't help that you decided to have a friendly chat for the first two hours of this meeting." The red haired Gaara spoke from beside him, making up the third member of this small meeting. Another childhood friend of his, and also his Accounts manager. "Now as Shikamaru was saying, profits have been good, in fact ever since we opened three years ago we've constantly seen profits rise year out. Naruto, have you ever thought of expanding outwards?"

"You mean like a new floor in the building? Coz I go tons of ideas we could do if we put another floor in this place!" Naruto beamed excitedly towards his two friends.

"No we mean like a new centre altogether." Shikamaru responded dully, "Gaara and I have spoken about it at length, and it could work, we've got the resources to fund a whole new state of the art building. We've got the customer satisfaction and word of mouth, and we're getting the reputation. Now's the perfect time."

"But where would we think of building a new centre?" Naruto asked curiously, allowing Gaara and Shikamaru to grow small smiles at his interest in the subject.

"We've got two ideas," Shikamaru answered, flicking the presentation to the next slide, showing pictures of the west part of the city of Konohagakure. "One was building a new centre in western Konoha, which is developed but not as economically developed as Eastern Konoha where we are now. We could build a new centre, and offer lower prices to customers in order to facilitate the average annual salary in the western part of Konoha. However there are already many Lifestyle management and leisure centres already there. Most of them are small, family names with loyal, lifetime customers, it could be difficult to pull them away from the centres already established with firm roots to the area."

"Okaaay… what's the other option?" Naruto asked curiously. Gaara nodded towards Shikamaru, who flicked the presentation to the next slide, now showing images of Sunagakure, the largest city in Fu no Kuni. "Suna? That's pretty far away for our first expansion, don't you think?"

"Yes, but as Gaara said, and I agree. It is our better option." Shikamaru answered confidently. "Suna's being growing a lot recently, as is the country itself. A lot of people are immigrating to Suna, its current population stands at seven million and growing, despite that, there is not even one hundred centres throughout the city, and none of them come close to offering the same amount to their customers as we can provide. We've even found a location," Shikamaru spoke, flicking to an image of an abandoned multi-storey car park. "This car park has been out of use for years, and it's directly in the heart of the city. Fu no Kuni has a majority of desert landscape, and has very high temperatures throughout the year, I'm thinking we build here, offer the same gym, sporting activities and classes as we do here, but focus more on relaxation and keeping out of the heat. Throw in a few spas, a bigger swimming pool, in multiple swimming pools and I reckon we could see a large profit within the first year end of its opening."

"But still, it's pretty far away, it's a three day trip from Konoha to Suna by car. Who would manage it?" Naruto asked again.

"My brother, Kankuro." Gaara responded for Shikamaru. "Kankuro knows the city and the people, and the people know him. And he owns 4.6% of the shares of Dattebayo, so he has everything to gain from a successful venture in Suna as well. He knows the culture better in my hometown than I do, Shikamaru had good ideas, but Kankuro can also bring in the cultural activities the residents would want to see."

"I guess…" Naruto scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I like both ideas, can't we do both?"

"We've had a good few years, Naruto. But not good enough to fund both ventures, we can always come back to the other once the one you've chosen is up and running and is successful." Shikamaru frowned at the blonde hesitation. Sliding him a paper format of both ideas.

Naruto stared at both piece of paper thoughtfully for a few second. "It seems like you've got more faith in the Suna project, are you sure it will work?"

Shikamaru smirked confidently. "I wouldn't have suggested it if I wasn't. Just sign that paper and we can start on our Suna project."

"Okay, Shika, I trust you!" Naruto beamed excitedly, signing the bottom of the paper before sliding it back to Shikamaru.

"Good, now we can begin construction on the facility and-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa whoa!" Naruto loudly shouted over the black haired man. "Don't we have to buy the land that car park is on first?"

Shikamaru smirked sneakily. "I already have." Naruto's eyes widened with shock and before he could speak Shikamaru rose his hand to keep him silence. "I know what you're thinking, just like I knew you would go with the Suna project once we pitched it to you. Like I said Gaara and I were talking about this for a while, but other companies were eyeing that land that car park was on in the centre of the city. I couldn't afford to wait for your official consent, so I bought the land."

"And what if I didn't like the Suna idea?" Naruto frowned almost angrily that Shikamaru had been working behind his back.

"We could have sold the land to one of the companies that were eyeing it for a higher price than what we bought it for." Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders lazily.

"I'll be going out Suna periodically during the construction months and the first months of open business to help Kankuro get up to speed. But Shikamaru is right, this could work, Naruto." Gaara continued with a small smile. "All that's left is the appropriate marketing."

"Marketing?" Naruto raised an eyebrow at Gaara's last comment.

"Yeah, we were really lucky we came out so well with the minimum marketing we did for this branch, we relied almost solely on word of mouth from the customers and a few billboard ads, people knew us here. That won't cut it in Suna, there's seven million people we have to attract to the business. We'll need something better to grasp their attention, we've got the money to pump into better marketing, so why don't we?" Shikamaru sat back down next to Naruto and Gaara.

"What are you thinking?" Naruto asked the black haired man, who smile confidently once again.

"I was thinking of getting a contract set up with a Marketing consultant agency." Shikamaru let out a heavy sigh. "Of course though, most of them have pretty strong ties to other companies, some with our competitors. I've been looking around, and I think our best bet comes with Doujutsu Inc."

"Doujutsu?" Naruto asked once again.

"Yeah, they are an up and coming Marketing company, and like us, they've been pretty successful right from the get go. But obviously they've attracted a lot of attention, I've been trying to get us a meeting for weeks, but they are never available."

"Oh I know who they are." Naruto responded with a smile. "My cousin works there."

"Your cousin?" Shikamaru's eyebrow rose at the blonde's comment.

"Yeah, I think she said she works directly for one of the owners and co-CEO, she constantly goes on about him like he's a God, but has never mentioned his name or anything about him." Naruto complained in a whining tone.

"Naruto…" He turned back to Shikamaru, who had reclaimed his serious mode. "Why haven't you mentioned this before!? This is just what we need! Do you think she can arrange us a meeting with him?"

"Uhh… I don't know, maybe…" The blonde brought out his phone, quickly flickering his contacts before dialling and bringing the phone.

"Naruto? I haven't heard from you in a while, what's up?"

Naruto beamed largely when she answered the phone. "Hey cousin, let's go bowling!"

* * *

"So Hinata, you're starting at Doujutsu on Monday," Ino spoke happily, but she did not miss when Sakura abruptly excused herself to disappear into the kitchen. "They're doing pretty good, you gotta be on some good wage there?"

"Yes, although a part of me thinks Neji-nii-san is paying me a bit more than he should." Hinata responded with an excited smile. She had been in out of part time work for a long time, what Neji had offered her was more than a good payslip, he was offering her stability. "I-I think the first thing I'll do is take Bolt and Himawari on holiday, after that, I'll save to get out of this cramped apartment."

Ino beamed happily once again, before quickly looking over her shoulder. "Psst, now that the sourpuss has disappeared, tell me about this guy you met. I can't remember the last time you looked at one." She spoke in a hushed whisper.

Hinata giggled quietly to herself. "H-he was something extraordinary, Ino. He was so kind, and selfless and generous. He helped me without a moment's hesitation even though he did not know me. He was a bit loud in all honesty, but he was still charming in his own way." Hinata spoke out loud to herself, but loud enough for her blonde friend to hear. She gave a loud sigh of happiness. "And the way he smiled, Ino. The way he smiled made me feel something I never felt before, it was like I was always cold, and his smile was a fire to keep me warm…"

Ino sighed in wonder after listening to the blue haired woman descry be this mystery man. "Do you think you'll see him again?"

"I-I do not know… I hope so…" Hinata smiled towards the glass she played with between her fingers. "I don't think I'll ever be able to see him in that way, h-he mentioned he had a girlfriend, b-but I would very much like to see that smile again."

Ino's brow furrowed at the mention of this guy's girlfriend. "Did you at least get this guy's name this time?"

Hinata nodded firmly. "Yes, his name was Naruto…."

* * *

"STRIKE!" Naruto screamed loudly as the ten pins cluttered and dropped to the floor. He turned to his companion, and grinned widely.

The woman flickered her red hair tied in a ponytail back over her shoulder, before she walked past him, she punched him hard in the arm. "Don't get cocky, blondie!"

"Ouch, Karin!" He whined loudly, watching her pick up a ball and throw it towards the set of ten pins, his eyes widened with panic when all ten were knocked down.

She turned back to him with a confident smirk. "See? You're lucky I didn't have anything planned tonight, you wouldn't have anyone to kick your ass otherwise. How's Aunt Kushina?" She asked him as he returned to pick up his favourite orange ball.

"I don't know. Remember how my mom got after I went camping with Shikamaru and didn't ring her for a week?" He asked her, and she nodded back firmly in response. "Yeah, now imagine how she'd react when I haven't spoken to her in eight months."

"Oh you're so dead!" Karin laughed loudly, causing a startle in Naruto and in turn created a gutter ball.

He turned around with a heavy sigh, waiting for his ball to return. "Honestly Karin I was so busy I didn't have time to ring her at first, but now it's got to the point where I'm too scared to ring home or go see my parents. How's work?"

"It's great, my boss is a genius!" She exclaimed excitedly. Before her mood softened to a sour one. "But's he's been a bit angry recently, he's had meeting after meeting with potential business partners, but they've all been terrible. Doujutsu hasn't created a new marketing deal in months, and it's got him pissed off." She answered sadly, before looking towards her blond cousin with a knowing smile. "What about you, I've seen how Dattebayo's been doing for itself. It's even caught my bosses' attention…"

"Really?" Naruto turned with a look of surprise after hitting a spare.

"Yeah, they've been waiting for Dattebayo to show signs of expanding. They thought you were gonna do it last year and were preparing a pitch to assist as your marketing consultants, but you didn't." Karin spoke still smiling towards him. "Honestly, with how my boss has been recently I was tempted to tell him you were my cousin and arrange a meeting to get his spirits back up."

"Shikamaru didn't think it was a good time last year. And I'm not gonna go against what Shikamaru says, the guy's a fricken genius!" Naruto beamed back widely to her. "However…" He added, causing Karin to look up and focus on him again. "Me, Shikamaru and Gaara were talking about expansion now, we've got plans to build a new centre in Suna. It was something I wanted to talk to you about. Do you think you could set up a meeting with your boss? We're going to need a strong marketing plan when we hit Suna."

Karin's smile turned to an apologetic stare. "Sorry, Naruto, but my boss it pretty much booked out for weeks, and although there is an interest in Dattebayo, he firmly believes in respecting all clients, he won't drop one off just so he can have a meeting with you."

"Crap. Oh well, it was worth a shot." Naruto smiled nonetheless, causing Karin to smile as well.

"But I know Neji has a three o'clock opening on Monday. I can have you booked into that by the end of the night, you just gotta drop me off at work for ten minutes." Karin smiled, however Naruto's eyes squinted with recollection._ 'Sasuke-kun owes me the most romantic meal for two for setting this meeting up!'_

"Neji?"

"Yeah, he's co-owner, co-founder and co-CEO. Why?" Karin asked with a hint of interest after seeing her cousin's face.

"It's just I heard his name today, I think I met his cousin." Naruto answered thoughtfully, scratching the back of his head harshly.

"Wow, Naruto, you know that ability of yours always surprises me." Karin could only laugh towards the blonde man. "You're always able to meet the right people."

* * *

_**A/N**_: Hello again, so that was chapter 2, how was it? Few things to discuss:

1 - The first part of this was a flashback (obviously due to the fact Hinata was pregnant)

2 - A few people mentioned they were confuzzled about the relationship between Naruto and Hinata, well there isn't one. In this AU, Naruto and Hinata didn't meet before the one night stand and they didn't meet again until when we see them do in chapter 1, why they don't remember each other or why they didn't attempt will be explained in due time, however as explained by our dear friend Ino, Hinata was drunk and forgot to ask his name, Naruto was the same when they met in the past and got their freak on.

3 - How can I have a story about Naruto, Hinata, Bolt and Himawari and Bolt and Himawari not be seen 2 chapters in, simple enough, I don't plan on having Naruto meet his kids first, I was thinking someone else will meet one of them first.

4 - Other kids from chapter 700? Yes, there will be one other kid from chapter 700 in this fic and it ain't Sarada (Sorry BurritoSalad fans)

5 - As evident in this fic I don't know much about business, or marketing, or social interaction

6 - If I've forgotten to explain anything, or you have any questions feel free to PM me and ask

Until next time


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Yo! So again Chapter 2 was quite well received review wise, so I hustled and bustled to get this chapter up.

Saying that, it's shorter than the previous chapters, and to be honest it's like 65% omake 35% character and story progression.

Anyways, on with the show:

* * *

"Naruto."

"_No no no no no, I asked for extra pork…"_

"Naruto…"

"_What do you mean you're out of Naruto...?"_

"Naruto!"

"What!?" His eyes jolted open with a startle, before squinted back down after being pierced by the harsh morning light. He looked to the side of his bed, a woman his own age stood dressed and prepared for the day, her long light blond hair was tied back and held in place by a red bow at the end, and her pale lavender eyes stared down at the blonde haired man wrapped up in his bed sheets.

"Get up, Naruto. You promised you would go to church with me today." She spoke down to him, throwing some of his smarter clothes on the bed.

"I did and I will, Shion. But I'm not getting up until its closer to when it starts." Naruto grumbled back, turning around to face the opposite way from her and curling up into a ball.

"Church starts in an hour." She responded bluntly to him.

He flickered his eyes open again, and they darted towards the clock on the bedside table. "Church starts at 8?" He spoke with a dry mouth, before groaning loudly as he sat up in the bed, scratching his head and ruffling his hair even worse than the sleep had caused it to look. "Right, I'm up."

"Good, and while you're getting ready we can talk about where you were all of yesterday. And why you decided to sneak in at ten to midnight?" Shion spoke with an annoyed tone, watching as the blonde man slowly creeped to the end of the bed and threw the pressed white shirt she had taken out for him over his head.

"I told you. First I was at the store picking up some stuff, then I met a friend whilst there and helped them take their shopping home. That caused me to be late for my meeting with Shikamaru and Gaara. Then after that I met up with Karin and went bowling with her. After we finished bowling I had to take her to work for like ten minutes so she could book us in with a meeting with one of her bosses tomorrow. After that I dropped her off at home, stayed at her house for like an hour and had a snack and a catch up coz I haven't seen her for like five months and after that came home-ttebayo." He repeated his story to her, the same one he told her when she woke up last night when he came back to his apartment.

"Really? And who was this friend you met Naruto?" Shion asked curiously, although hints of anger still linger in her tone.

"Her name's Hinata, she lives like halfway across town-"

"And why haven't I met this Hinata?" She interrupted him, her brow furrowing towards the blonde man.

Naruto turned to look at the clock again, before returning to face his girlfriend with an angry glare of his own. "You seriously want to start having this argument now? Because we can have this argument now, we'll just be late for your church instead."

Shion's lips pursed together, a look of anger to piercing through behind her gaze. "Just get dressed Naruto." She finally uttered before turning and leaving their bedroom, slamming the door behind her, leaving Naruto with nothing to do except sigh loudly in frustration.

* * *

"Bolt-kun, Himawari-chan, lunch is ready." Hinata spoke loudly from the small kit hen, her son already sat in the living room, his young eyes glued to the television in front of him. Her shout was loud enough for her daughter to come skipping out of her room towards the dining table.

Bolt moved from his seat, still watch the television as he walked backwards towards the table taking the seat behind his lunch. Hinata looked over to see what he was watching and a puzzled look came over her face. "How old is Ash now, Bolt-kun?"

"He's ten mom." He didn't look at her to answer her question, instead still focusing on the show playing on the television.

"Really? I was your age when that show first came out and he was ten years old then." Hinata smiled, although Bolt only nodded his head in return, taking a large bite out of his sandwich. "So, I'll be starting work tomorrow. I'll be dropping you off at school, however I don't know when I'll be finishing, I will discuss things with your Uncle Neji tomorrow about getting time to pick you up from school. But tomorrow your Aunt Hanabi will be picking you up."

"We haven't seen Aunt Hanabi for a long time." The young Himawari seemed to smile happily at the news.

"Oh yeah, which reminds me. Mom, is it okay if I go round a friend's house after school on Monday?" Bolt spoke up, finally taking his eyes off the TV.

"Umm… which friend is it, Bolt-kun?" Hinata asked carefully, as Bolt had many friends, but had never gone round any of their houses.

Instead of answering, Bolt quickly left the table, darting into his room, he quickly returned with a small slip of paper in his hands. "His name's Shikadai, he's pretty lazy, but quite smart at the same time. He said he'd help me with my homework-ttebasa. He told me to give you this, it's from his mom. She said it's their address, home phone number and her and his dad's cell phone numbers in case you need to contact her or something." He spoke again, handing her the paper.

Hinata took at and read over the details on the piece of paper. "Of course you can go round you friend's house, Bolt-kun. Just remember your manners, and do not cause any trouble while there."

"Of course, mom!" He grinned widely, before sitting back down at the table to continue watching TV.

Hinata smiled in return, however from the corner of her eye she saw her daughter's eyes fall down sadly, staring at the food in front of her. Hinata's own eyes gave in to the sadness, Himawari never spoke about any friends she had made at school and for a while now, she feared that her daughter simply didn't have any.

* * *

"That is all for today, go in peace all of you. Confessional will now be open." The priest at the front of the gathered crowd spoke with a pleasant, soft smile. And in the crowd a blond man sighed heavily in relief.

"Three hours, he went on and on for three hours." Naruto sight with his eyes wide, pushing his hair backwards while he looked to the ground in awe. "I can't believe that guy could make a speech about being nice to people last three hours."

"Naruto." He turned to his girlfriend, who smiled happily back towards him. "Thank you for making the attempt by coming today. Now to complete your trial run, why don't you try confessional?"

"What do I have to do?" He asked curiously in response.

"Go into that booth, a priest will be waiting inside, you just take a seat and discuss what is on your mind, if you believe have wrongdoings, the priest may offer advice." Shion spoke, pointing to a wooden box near the back of the alter.

"Okay, I guess." He shrugged, before making his way to one of the booths, closing the door behind him he sat down, a small block of wood from the side opened slightly, but he could barely see the person on the other side. "Hey."

"What troubles you, my son?" A man on the other side spoke calmly and quietly.

"Uh… Well if I'm honest I don't know what I'm supposed to do or say right now." Naruto responded with a sigh. "No offence but I don't really believe in your God. My dad is a Buddhist and my mom follows Shinto, so I've got most of my teachings from their beliefs. My girlfriend follows your religion though, and she keeps trying to convert me. I'm here because I told her I would give it a try so she would be happy, but… I dunno, it just feels wrong for me to be here, it feels like I'm just wasting your time…"

"Helping others is never a waste of my time." The priest responded kindly. "You may not believe, but I find there are lessons to be learned hidden in all religions. Perhaps you will not convert, but you may leave here with a different outlook, you may leave with a new lesson… If you do not mind me asking, my son. What is your name?"

"Naruto." The blond man responded. "Naruto Namikaze."

"Naruto!" The man on the other side seemed to almost shout ecstatically. "Thank the heavens, it's me, Jiraiya!"

"Jiraiya!?" Naruto near shouted back in horror. "What the hell are you doing in there!?"

"Naruto, that isn't appropriate language for a church…" Jiraiya spoke back in a scolding tone.

"But still, Jiraiya, what are you doing in there?" Naruto asked with a reiterating tone.

"Well you see, I was out last night, and I met this beautiful young woman. We were talking all night, and before I knew it the sun was up. So we went to go look for someplace to stay, however there wasn't a hotel anywhere nearby, we saw the church was opening and well…"

"Oh jeez Jiraiya!" Naruto pinched his nose with frustration. "There I was saying how I felt bad for being here, but look at you! What if someone else came in here!? I don't know much about Shion's faith, but I know this stuff ain't cool!"

"I know, Naruto!" Jiraiya spoke back quickly. "I'll admit this wasn't my best idea. And I'm sure there are gates wide open waiting for me! But Naruto, I didn't think anybody would be here today!"

"It's Sunday!" Naruto barked back. "Shion always goes to church on Sunday! It's like, her God's day or something!"

"I screwed up, Naruto! I'll admit it! I've done a horrible thing and I'm a horrible person! But Naruto I'm begging for your help, can you just hold up in here and wait for everyone to go so we can make a silent escape?"

Naruto tutted loudly in frustration, if he was honest, the thought of ratting Jiraiya plagued through his mind, it would show the old pervert a lesson. But he _had_ just sat through a three hour lecture on being nice to people. "Fine, you know I think there are anonymous groups for people like you."

"Thanks Naruto. You're a good kid. I saw your parents recently, your mom's in a blind fury because you haven't spoke to her in a while. It took all of mine and Minato's persuasive skills to stop her marching to your office and beating you senseless."

"Don't remind me-ttebayo, Karin says I'm dead as well." Naruto huffed out, crossing his arms across his chest.

"So… How are you and Shion?"

"Crappy. We've been fighting more and more recently. In fact, like ten minutes ago was the first time I've seen her smile in a long time…" Naruto answered quietly. "Things have been going downhill since _that_ time. And as Dattebayo's getting more and more busy it's like it's making things worse. I've been trying to get things back to the way things were, to show that I'm over what happened, but then a part of me thinks maybe I'm not over it. And that's why things don't seem to be getting better, that's why nothing seems to be working to fix it…"

"Naruto, do you believe in the red thread of fate?"

"Sometimes… why?"

"Well your mom believes in it. She believes that what brought her and Minato together, she believes in it so much she thinks her hair is the red thread of fate that brought Minato to her."

"Right…" Naruto's eyebrow rose with curiosity, Jiraiya was an idiot and a pervert, but sometimes, and very rarely, he did display something akin to sage like advice. "What's your point?"

"The red thread connects two people together, two people destined for each other. And no matter how far away they are from each other, no matter where life has placed either of them. These two people will find each other. I personally don't believe in it, but if you do, maybe it's worth considering… that your thread isn't tied to Shion, maybe it's tied to someone else…"

* * *

The two knitting needles clicked together rhythmically, creating loop after loop of the same continuous pattern. It was one of her newer, but few in numerical hobbies. It was calming and relaxing, yet at the same time the mind had to stay focused, as one misstep could ruin it otherwise.

"Mom, what are you making?" Himawari sat next to her watching her knit together the red threads, intertwining them with each other.

"It's just a simple red scarf, Himawari-chan." She replied with a gentle smile, causing the girl to smile widely.

"Who are you making it for?"

She stopped her knitting for a moment, staring at the half prepared scarf, she had no idea what caused her desire to create the red coloured accessory. "I do not know, Himawari-chan, a part of me just felt compelled to make it…"

* * *

"Wow, Naruto, you were in there for a really long time!" Shion spoke giddily as her boyfriend left the confessional booth with a sour look on his face.

He looked up towards her, creating a smile to offer back towards her. "Yeah, I guess I had more on my plate than I thought…" He looked back down towards the ground, thinking about the truly horrifying position he was stuck in mere moments ago, and all that had been spoken and transpired whilst there. "Let's… let's go home, yeah?"

* * *

A/N: Yo! Me again, as usual a few things to discuss:

1 - Bolt and Himawari - We didn't see much of them in Chapter 700 so it's hard to write about them, personality wise I mean, it's like their OC really at this present time.

2 - Shikadai, that's right, Shikamaru's kid is the only one that survives, I mean, gets pulled into this story.

3 - Shion, yeah from the first movie, that's Naruto girlfriend, I don't know why but I always enjoyed that pairing. And I'm going to have to make her dislikable, which is a shame, because if she isn't disliked, people won't Naruto and Hinata to get together.

4 - Religion, now this chapter suprisingly for me as well focused on Religion, I decided to make Shion Christian (because Christianity is probably the religion I know most about), and I wanted to give the chapter something to make it worth posting. That being said, like Business, I don't really know much about any and all religions. I'd consider myself Agnostic, I open to it, but just not fully convinced. And I do have a silent respect for the religious, I admire the ability to put so much faith into something which may not be true, I'm too scared to do the same. And I truly believe, even if you are Atheist, there are valuable lessons to learn not just from one religion, but all religions. Plus, you don't have to believe in a God in order to be nice to people, and you know, not commit murder or something. If you have read this chapter and are religious, I would be happy if you would share how this chapter affected you, and if I am incorrect in certain aspects please let me know so I can correct them. Similarly, if you read this chapter and felt offended, I deeply apologise, and know it wasn't my intent, please do not take my ignorance as mockery, especially with the part with Jiraiya, that was just for comedy. Religion will not play a prominent part in this story, I may revisit it on occasion but that's it.

Anyways, until next time.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Ahoy! Damn, 4 chapters in 8 days, I'm on a fricken role!

To pervvysage who reviewed - I also think it sounds weird to have Bolt-kun, so I'll be taking the kun of Bolt's name.

To the guest who reviewed asking if Himawari and Bolt are twins - You should really reread chapter 1, because Hinata tells Naruto in that chapter she had twins.

To gummy b3ars who reviewed - You asked for a longer chapter, so here is a longer chapter, and I wouldn't say Naruto is cold to Shion, as he is trying to mend their relationship. but what transpired in the past will be revealed soon.

Anyways, a long chapter a head of us, so sit back and blah blah blah blah blah

On with the show!:

* * *

"Here is your desk, Hinata." She followed behind her cousin as he walked her through the top floor of Doujutsu, Neji's office was on a higher floor than her own apartment. "As I've already showed you the bathroom and kitchen we have up her, they are only really used by the four of us up here, and occasionally the security guards."

He directed her to the large desk. "That's an ergonomic chair and keyboard, you'll be looking at the computer monitor a lot, so remember to take a short break away from it every hour or so. The monitor's stand is height and distance adjustable, so keep it at eye level at a comfortable distance Other than that, that is the tour of the 35th floor. If you have any further questions, just see me or see Karin. She is Sasuke's PA and Secretary, she's been here almost since opening day." Neji finished with a small, courteous smile, pointing behind him to a red haired woman around her own age sitting at a desk similar to hers on the opposite side of the large office space.

"Umm… Neji…" She began timidly, maybe she just shouldn't ask, Neji had already gifted her so much she didn't want to sound greedy. "I was just wondering, about a possible finish time. I was wondering if I could… if it would be possible if I-"

"Here is your contract, Hinata." Neji interjected, handing her an envelope. "You start at nine, and you finish at three, unless of course I urgently need you to stay later. But I'll give you plenty of notice beforehand should that be the case, and know that Tenten is always willing to help you out. If I need you to stay, she has agreed to pick them up." He gave her another smile, causing her to smile back gratefully. "I'll be in my office Hinata, I won't require you to stay past three today. I have a meeting at that time, but it's nothing I can't handle myself."

She nodded appreciatively, Hanabi was still to pick her children up at school today, but she could head home and prepare a dinner for all four of them.

She sat down at her desk, taking out of her bag a picture of herself and her two children and placing it on the wooden furniture. "Hey." She heard a woman call out, looking up she saw the red haired woman who previously sat outside a desk in front of the only other door that lead to an office. "Name's Karin. Karin Uzumaki, as Neji-san said, I'm Sasuke-san's secretary." She spoke cheerfully.

"H-Hello, my name is Hinata Hyuuga." She replied with a smile, she continued when she saw Karin's brow raise at her last name. "Neji-nii-san- I mean, Neji-san is my cousin."

"Oh, you must be the one Naruto was talking about!" Karin spoke happily. "I didn't know you were to be working here!"

"N-Naruto-san?" She looked at the red haired woman in confusion, thinking of the kind, blond man she had met only a few days ago. Apparently he had spoken about her, and judging by Karin's reaction, it was at least in a good light. But a part of her couldn't help but wonder how this Karin knew Naruto.

"_Yeah I got a girlfriend."_

Her eyes widened, her mind recalling the words he spoke at her apartment. She looked up at Karin, if this was the woman he mentioned, she could see why he would fall for her. She had a slim build, like Sakura, whom strangers would believe she was a model and not a doctor. She also had deep red eyes framed wonderfully by glasses and vibrant, beautiful long red hair she had tied back into a ponytail.

"Yeah, the big doofus is my cousin!" She beamed for a second, and Hinata could almost see a resemblance between them in the way they both smiled. "I always thought cousins were meant to not look alike, but damn, you and Neji could totally pass off as siblings!"

Hinata found it odd that she sighed in relief at the knowledge of how Karin and Naruto were related, as if the knowledge gave birth to a window of opportunity, not that it did though. As Naruto did say he had a girlfriend, and she barely knew him! "W-Well, Neji's father and my father were identical twins. S-So genetically speaking, you could say we are kind of like siblings."

"No kidding." Karin chuckled, before her eyes darted towards the picture she had place on her desk. "Ah, already personalising your workspace? I like it, show's you want to be here for the long run! I love it here myself!" She grinned, before taking the picture and spinning the picture so she could take a look. "Who are these kids?"

"T-They are my children…" Hinata gulped, she would remember past stares she would receive when she told people she had children, stares of disapproval, and stares of discontent.

"Really?" Karin asked, "No offence, but I didn't think you looked a day over twenty-five. How old are they?"

"I-I am twenty-five. And they just turned seven a few months ago. The boy is named Bolt, the girl Himawari." Hinata replied quietly.

"They're cute." Karin responded with a sweet smile. "Himawari looks a lot like you. But Bolt…" She paused for a moment, Hinata could see her eyes focus on the side of the picture where Bolt was. "He doesn't really look like you, but for some strange reason. He looks really familiar…"

"Oh no, he hasn't pulled a prank on you in the past, has he?" The blue haired woman asked worriedly, she always had a fear when people said they recognised Bolt, as it was usually followed by them confessing a prank he had pulled on them. Even random strangers to her would recognise him for his pranks!

"No! If he did, he would know about it!" Karin chuckled lightly. "I grew up with Naruto, there isn't a prank your kid could pull that I haven't seen before, or I wouldn't be able to counter!"

Hinata giggled back towards the red haired woman. "Anyways, if you need anything I'll be right over there. But I should warn you now, in the event myself or Neji aren't around, it is not, I repeat NOT a good idea to disturb Sasuke-san with your query. Sasuke-san hates to be disturbed."

* * *

"Man I hate wearing these things!" The blond man grumbled loudly as he pulled on the orange tie around his neck, it stuck out from his black suit with a white shirt underneath. "And why are you here, Shikamaru?" He turned to see his black haired friend, similarly dressed in a black suit and tie leaning against the wall to his room.

"To make sure you put that on." He replied in a dragged out voice. "I know you can walk into our meetings wearing shorts and sandals, but this is an important meeting with a potential business partner. You have to look the part."

"I get it, man, jeez." Naruto whined loudly, adjusting the tie a few more times until it felt at least partially comfortable. "Do you really think we can get this deal, Shikamaru?"

"Yeah, they need us as much as we need them." Shikamaru nodded quickly. "I want this to be an amicable partnership obviously that benefits both parties mutually to the greatest extent. But we live in troublesome times, so I've done some digging. If push comes to shove I can have them eating out the palm of our hands if I need to."

"I don't doubt you on that." Naruto beamed ecstatically, adjusting his blazer once more. "Let's go meet Gaara and get this over with so I can get out of this monkey get up-ttebayo!"

* * *

"About time you showed up, you're almost late." Gaara stood outside the massive building, dressed in a pristine white suit as Naruto and Shikamaru approached him. With a serious amount of hair products, Gaara's usually unruly spiky hair had been kept down and flat.

"Sorry, Naruto was complaining worse than Shikadai." Shikamaru answered for the both of them, the three of them stared up at the immaculate building. "Let's go."

The went through the automatic doors, before they even took ten steps into the building they were stopped by a white haired man of average height dressed in a black suit, his medium length hair pushed back. Dark purple eyes glared at them, and a badge displaying the word 'security' made him instantly recognisable. "Can I help you guys?"

"Yes, we have a meeting with Neji Hyuuga-san at three o'clock." Shikamaru answered for the three of them, standing in between the blond and red haired men.

The security guard brought up the clipboard he held in his hand, glancing through papers attached to it. "Hmm, can I get your names and some identification please?"

The three of them nodded, handing over their driving licences. "The names are Shikamaru Nara, Gaara Sabaku, and Naruto Namikaze, we are here on behalf of Dattebayo Lifestyle Management and Recreation Centres."

"Yes, here you are." The security guard nodded, giving them a small grin. "Here or your licences back. Please sign in at the front desk and collect visitor passes. Juugo there will direct you to Neji-san's office." He nodded behind them.

"Geez, you're big." Naruto exclaimed immediately when they turned, a man in a similar suit to the other security guard, with a security badge himself. With a head of wild spiky orange hair and red-orange eyes. "You've gotta be what, 6'9?" Naruto's head bent backwards to look up at the security guard, he wasn't just tall, while the other security guard had a rather average build, this guy looked like he was built like a tank. Naruto couldn't help but chuckle to himself. "There mustn't be much to do security wise around here with you around?"

"Since my employment began here I have yet to see an incident." The man, Juugo responded in a calm voice.

"Yeah three guesses why big man." Naruto chuckled again, patting the huge security guard on the trunk of an arm. "This way to the front desk, yeah?"

"Yes, please follow me gentlemen." Juugo responded with a curt nod. He began to walk towards the front desk, and Shikamaru, Naruto and Gaara followed closely behind him.

* * *

"Hinata," She turned at the sound of Neji calling her name. "It's almost three, you can go now. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yes, and thank you again, Neji-san." She smiled, before turning off her computer. She bowed quickly to Neji, and waved to Karin who had waved at her before she turned and began to walk to one of the two elevators that led to the 35th floor. These elevators only went between the 34th and 35th floors. Meaning she would have to get into a new elevator to get back down to the lobby.

She pressed the button and the doors opened to allow her entry. Just as she pressed the button to close the door, she heard the other elevator open and a deep, calm voice speak out.

"Just this way gentlemen."

* * *

"Just this way gentlemen." They followed Juugo out of the elevator onto the 35th floor's large office space, they continued walking forwards, as they did Naruto turned, seeing the other elevator's doors close and proceed to drop to the lower floor.

His brow furrowed, it felt as almost as if he had just missed something important, but he wasn't sure why he got this feeling. "Naruto!"

He heard his name called, he turned to see he had stopped in his place, seeing Karin waving over to him. He smiled and approached her, where Juugo, Shikamaru and Gaara waited for him. "Glad to see you turned up on time!"

"I've got Shikamaru and Gaara to thank for that." Naruto beamed in return, causing Karin to laugh lightly.

"Karin, I'll leave them with you." Juugo bowed to the red haired woman, before giving another bow to the three visitors before departing.

"Shikamaru, Gaara, this is my cousin Karin. Karin, this is Shikamaru and Gaara, these guys are the brains behind Dattebayo!" Naruto gave out the introductions.

"I hope they do all the talking as well." Karin jokingly spoke, gaining an annoyed stare from her blond cousin. "Neji's waiting for you, I'll lead you in."

They followed behind her to one of the two doors, she knocked carefully before opening the door. "Neji-san, your three o'clock is here."

"Excellent, send them in." Karin moved to allow the men in. A man with long brown hair and pale white eyes stood from his chair, walking towards them. "Hello, I am Neji Hyuuga, co-founder, co-owner, co-CEO, staffing manager and liaison manager." He offered his right hand out to them.

"Shikamaru Nara." Shikamaru spoke first, grabbing his hand before walking further into the office.

"Naruto Namikaze." Naruto followed after, shaking Neji's hand.

"Gaara Sabaku." Gaara offered a small bow to accompany his hand shake.

"Take a seat gentlemen." Neji offered three chairs in front of his desk to them, before moving to his own chair on the other side. "I'm glad we were able to have this discussion so early in your plans for expansion. Karin told me she had heard your plans towards it."

"Before we go any further, Hyuuga-san. I must ask your consent to record this conversation for future reference." Gaara spoke, taking out a small audio device.

Neji's eyes narrowed, looking at the small device. "I see no reason why not. Though I will request a copy of the audio log myself, I must ask why you would feel the need?"

Shikamaru sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Give it ten minutes."

* * *

A tick of annoyance flecked through Neji's eyes as he stared at the blonde haired man, lolled back in his chair and a gentle snore emitting through his nose. "As I was saying…" Shikamaru spoke slowly, looking at the blonde haired man himself. "As you can see from our profits and loss accounts, and profits have risen like clockwork since our opening year three years ago, our inward revenue is almost quadruple our outgoing expenses. Our most recent customer survey of over 250 people show an almost complete customer satisfaction rate, granted, as a businessman yourself, you know you can't please all your customers. We're getting a great reputation, one definitely worth considering on your side of this deal as well."

"Hmm, yes, figures and customers are all well and good, but as a business man yourself, Nara-san. You know that isn't everything, I've had men like you come in to this very office, preaching the exact same high standards and dreams of further expansion, and I've seen their dreams turn to ruin. How can you ensure me that you will not be the same, that this deal will be beneficial on Doujutsu's part as well?" Neji asked carefully, pulling his gaze off the sleeping blond and back to the black haired man sat in the centre.

"Simple, we don't have a dream. Our plans are very much a reality." Shikamaru spoke with a confident smirk.

Gaara pulled out a file from the briefcase at his side, sliding it across the desk to Neji, who opened it and began examining the contents. "We've had multiple plans for expansion of the past few months, we boiled it down to two. However this is the one we plan to go with, we'll play it safe at not shoot over our reach."

"Suna?" Neji looked up from the file towards the two men, "A bit far for your first expansion, wouldn't you say?"

"Yes, but we've agreed this is the option with the most potential." Shikamaru retorted calmly. "For one, Suna has less competition than Konoha in our area of business. And as you must be aware, Suna's growing population, workforce and economy over the past decade or so has opened a large window of opportunity for businesses, especially up and coming businesses like us. Furthermore, based on a survey of the general population of Suna, the people want to see a business, a centre like ours in their vicinity."

"You're right. Suna has been growing impressively, and many business are looking towards it for expansion and outsourcing. And as I'm sure you are aware, you won't be the only business specialising in Lifestyle management and Recreation looking towards them. How can you be sure you'll be able to topple them in reach the most customers?"

"Simple. We'll beat them there. Please turn to the next page in the file." Shikamaru answered coolly, waiting for Neji to turn the page. "That is the land we've bought in Suna, right in the heart of the city. We'll have our construction permit by the end of next week, we expect primary construction to be completed within the next eight months, the interior and staffing to be done within the following the three months, and open to the public before the year's out."

"I'll admit, you've come more prepared than anyone I've seen before." Neji spoke with a curt smile, closing the file and sliding it back to Gaara. "Now the question you've probably had to plan for the most. How will this venture into Suna be beneficial to my own company? Sabaku-san, you are the Accounts manager, correct? Then you should know that a venture into another country is a much more sizable… and expensive investment, especially on our part."

"Yes it is, but definitely worth the investment," Gaara answered as coolly as Shikamaru had previously. "After all, Hyuuga-san. You're just like us, an up and coming business fighting against older companies with firm and old roots. And just like us, you are getting a formidable reputation, you're game changers in your industry as we are in ours,"

"Flattery will not get this deal, Gaara-san." Neji gave off a slight, dry chuckle.

"No, but potential expansion for your own company will." Gaara responded with a confident smile. "As I was saying you're just like us, you haven't expanded yet. You've got the reputation in Konoha as we do. And when our venture is successful in Suna… when our brand name is plastered across every billboard Suna, when our brand name is beamed through every television set in the city… your brand name will be there right along aside it."

When Neji's eyebrow rose with a tinge of interested, Shikamaru and Gaara both smiled, under the table the bumped fists. They fricken had this. "But what we're offering in return is more than just profits and expansion to you, Hyuuga-san. I've researched how you work. You offer rolling temporary deals, cut ties with the business that fail, and hang on to the ones that thrive, but that is only getting you so far, if the ones that are successful decide to look at a new marketing assistant, you've got no ties to keep them to you, they just wait for the contract to expire and carry on their merry way… What we're offering to you is for the long haul, as Gaara said you're just like us, a company we can relate to in terms of our visions of the future. We both want to dominate our industries. Doujutsu was our first choice for a marketing assistant and partner, and we want you to be our last choice. We'll even throw in lifetime memberships to Dattebayo for your employees."

Neji brought his linked fingers in front of his face, staring down the two of them calmly. "And what, Nara-san, would you ask for in exchange for such loyalty?"

"The same." Shikamaru responded as coolly as he had been throughout this entire meeting. "We would expect your loyalty to us. When our venture is successful, you'll no doubt gain the eye of hundreds of companies, some in the same business as us. We will not contact your competitors, you do not contact ours, and it's as simple as that."

Neji let out a dry chuckle once again. "You're good, I'll give you that. Though a word of advice…" Neji's eyes darted towards the sleeping blond. "Don't bring him to meetings like these."

"Kind of have to." Shikamaru sighed loudly. "He's owner, founder and majority shareholder of Dattebayo. At the end of it all, he's the one that makes the decision."

"Well I'm thankful he has a decent mind working for him." He smiled towards the black haired man, who smiled back. "I'll admit, I believe this venture of yours can work. You've got the motivation for it. Of course, I cannot make these decisions myself, even if I believe this partnership can work. I'll run this all past my business partner, but I don't see any reason why Sasuke wouldn't be agreeable-"

"What!? Sasuke!?" Naruto's eyes darted open, he looked around angrily. "This is Sasuke's company!? That bastard!"

Naruto rocketed out of the room, storming across the office and towards the other office door. "N-Naruto, stop! You can't go in there! Sasuke's extremely busy right now!" Karin panicked as she saw her blond haired cousin charge towards the door her desk stood in front.

"SASUKE!" Naruto burst into the offices. An a tall man with shimmering raven black hair spiked at the back looked upwards, his black blazer hung off the back of his chair behind him, and his shirt's white sleeves had been rolled up and his collar unbuttoned. In his hands was gripped a long putter, he stood over unrolled length of artificial grass, a white ball positioned ready to be struck towards a hole at the opposite length of the green.

"Naruto? What are you doing here?" The man's onyx eyes narrowed towards the blond intruder, however Naruto himself only seethed further in anger.

"I could ask you the same thing!" Naruto barked back angrily. "Why didn't you say you were back in Konoha!? That's what friends are supposed to do, y'know! A telephone call, an email, a text, I would have taken a goddamn messenger pigeon!"

"Naruto, do you want to do something later this week?" Sasuke asked dully, looking as the blond man's anger began to subside.

"Uh… yeah sure…"

"Good, now take seven steps backwards."

"Sure, Sasuke." Naruto nodded, following Sasuke's request and taking seven steps backs.

"Now grab the door handle."

"Yeap."

"And pull it towards you."

"Okay." Naruto beamed, closing the door, only after that did he realise that he was on the other side of the door, leaving Sasuke alone in his office. He grumbled audibly to himself, "Asshole…"

* * *

Shikamaru closed the door to his home behind him, hours after the meeting took place and he had returned to finish agendas left at Dattebayo.

He leaned back against the large wooden door, Naruto loved the city, so he had made his home there. Gaara found an apartment in the city not out of a love for it, but as a matter of convenience, it was closer to work and closer to the airport should he need to fly back to Suna.

Shikamaru was not the same as them, he didn't particularly like the hustle and bustle of the city, he preferred a peace and quiet. Hence he had found his home in the outer suburbs beyond Konoha. He looked around at his large house, three floors, seven bedrooms for when they had guests, a swimming pool that went barely used and a large grass garden.

He sighed loudly, kicking his shoes off and went through the house, looking for people. There was no one about, not in the living area, not in the dining room or kitchen.

But he found someone beyond that, sitting on the patio beyond the doors to the garden on a large sun chair under a parasol, a gentle breeze flowing gently through her tied back. He approached her quietly, she was focused on a book nestled within her hands.

"What honestly made you believe you could sneak up on me?" He heard her call out as he was inches away from her. He sighed loudly, leaning over the back of the chair and wrapping his arms around her neck.

"I thought today might be different, I've had a lucky day after all Temari." He kissed the top of her head, before moving to sit in the sun chair next to her.

He caught her smiling at him, bright green eyes softening as he sat down. "So I take it the meeting went well?"

"It went okay…" He sighed again, sliding back into the chair and undoing the tie around his neck. "Naruto fell asleep during it then pretty much verbally assaulted one of the co-CEOs."

The woman laughed loudly at his explanation. "Were you expecting anything less?"

"All things considered I expected something more, I expected him to break something while we were there." He replied, digging through his pockets and pulling out a small pack of cigarettes, plucking one out and putting it to his mouth. "I swear, the amount of stress that idiot puts me through will be the death of me."

"No," She replied, leaning across and pulling the cigarette from his mouth before he could light it. "These will be the death of you." She snapped the small cigarette in half.

He looked at her face, then towards the broken cigarette spread between her two hands before sighing for yet another time, taking a fresh cigarette out and lighting it. "Where's Dai?"

"Up by the tree with his friend." Temari's head nodded in the direction of the large tree in the centre of their garden, and upon further inspection, he could see two figures resting in the shade underneath it. "Shikadai! Your dad's home, dinner will be served soon!" He heard Temari call out again, standing up from her sun chair.

He saw the two small figures scramble to their feet, one charged ahead of the other, who took a leisurely pace back towards the house.

"Yo, Shikadai's dad!" The quicker figure approached him, with thick spiky blond hair and blue, almost lilac eyes. "The name's Bolt Hyuuga! Thanks for having me round today-ttebasa!"

'_Hyuuga?_' Shikamaru's eyes narrowed at the small kid, the same last name as Neji. Was there a relation between the two of them.

"Don't be a kiss up, Bolt." Shikadai mumbled as he strolled past the two of them. "Then my parents will expect the same from me, and that's far too troublesome…"

"Eh? Don't be such a lazy smartypants, Dai!" The blond boy's growled in frustration, before taking off inside after his own son.

"It's cute." He heard Temari speak with a small smile, "Reminds me of another dysfunctional duo I know."

"What are you talking about?" Shikamaru turned in to chair to watch the two boys walk towards the dining room, but his eyes focused on the blonde boy, Bolt.

"Reminds me of you and Naruto. Give it half an hour and you'll be thinking the same thing." Temari laughed quietly to herself. "If I isn't horrifying enough that Bolt looks like a mini version of Naruto, he's got the same attitude as well. You sure Naruto doesn't have any kids?"

"Yeah…" His eyes focused harder on the back of the blond boy. "Quite positive…"

* * *

Shikamaru knocked on the door quickly after dragging himself up 26 flights of stairs. Shikadai and Bolt both stood in front of him. He had offered to take Bolt home, and dragged Shikadai along with him as it was manners to see a guest off.

The door opened, seeing a petite woman with long blue hair and lavender eyes on the other side. "Hey mom! Thanks for having me round Dai, I'll see you at school tomorrow!" Bolt waved for sprinting into his home.

A small girl peeked her head around the door, she looked just like the woman in front of him, and a light blush appeared across her face. "H-Hello, Shikadai-kun."

"Hey, Himawari." Shikadai mumbled back, staring aware from the door, his back slouched and his hands crammed in his pockets.

"Thank you for taking care of Bolt, I hope he wasn't any trouble today." The woman spoke with a small smile, however she trembled slightly when the man in front of her continued staring at her, the ways his eyes narrowed, and it was almost as if they displayed a sense of recognition. "I-Is there something wrong?"

"No, sorry. My girlfriend said he was very well behaved and well mannered, she said she'd have him over again." The man finally responded. "Sorry, my name's Shikamaru Nara, this guy's dad." He pointed down towards the boy standing beside him.

Not that she had a doubt, apart from the shape and colour of the eyes, the two were exact copies of each other. Same hair colour, same facial structure, even the same posture. "I'm Hinata Hyuuga, once again thank you for looking after Bolt today."

"No problem, well we best be going. If Shikadai ever comes here or if Bolt ever comes back to our house again. I guess we'll be seeing each other again." He gave her a small bow and a smile.

"Yes, well goodbye." The woman smiled back, before gently closing the door. Shikamaru and his son turned, heading towards the stairs. Shikadai looked up at his dad's frowning face, deep within his own thoughts.

"Hey dad, something the matter?" He asked curiously as they began the long march back to the car.

"Yeah, everything's fine." Shikamaru responded, walking down the stairs carefully.

However, everything was not fine. Something had been bugging him ever since Temari had brought it up, she was right, the way Bolt looked and acted… It was just like Naruto.

"You sure Naruto doesn't have any kids?"

That was why he offered to take Bolt home, knowing he would have to meet Bolt's mother when he dropped him off. Shikamaru was not the sort to forget a face, especially considering his eidetic memory and Hyperthymesia.

'_So the girl Naruto's ditched us for on his eighteenth birthday party is Bolt's mom…'_ He concluded as he continued down the stairs towards his car. _'So Naruto really did jump the sack with her. If I didn't have actually living memory in Bolt, I think I still wouldn't believe he did.'_

* * *

**A/N**: Yo! So there's the next chapter, Shikamaru the sneaky devil has sussed it out! What will happen now that Shikamaru has discovered a rather shocking fact? Find out on the next episode of Pokemon! Sorry, wrong show.

Anyways, as always a few things to discuss:

1 - Naruto and Hinata not meeting at Doujutsu? I did originally plan it, but I wanted Shikamaru to be the first person to say 'Naruto got Hinata pregnant', and he would have recognised her if they met at their meeting.

2 - Juugo, yes the security guard is Juugo, and the other was obviously Mangestu... Just kidding, it was Suigetsu. Juugo's height is really the topic of discussion, in Canon, at aged 18-19 Juuso stands at 202cm (Or 6'6"), as Naruto, and Sasuke and the like are all twenty five, Juugo would be 27-28, so I added a bit more height to him.

3 - Temari is Shikamaru's girlfriend, not wife!? Yes ShikaTem fans, Temari is still the mother to Shikadai, as this is set in a more modern setting, Shikamaru and Temari just haven't got married yet, doesn't mean they haven't been together for a long time they might as well be married, in this fic, they've been together for at least 10 years. This will be explained.

4 - Konoha and Suna, a lot of talk is going on about Suna's increase in population and wealth, and Konoha is already pretty strong, if I was going to liken them to actual geographical cities. Konoha is kind of like London or New York city, while Suna is more like Rio de Janeiro or Dubai, as they have both had massive boosts to their econmies and are both rapidly developing countries... At least I think

Anyways, that's all for this chapter, what will happen next? I really don't know..

Until next time!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Yo! So here we are with Chapter 5, It's a pretty short chapter, and it's the one I always fear as an author. If you're an author yourself you might understand. This is the chpater that transitions the story from where it is to where you want it to be, or like the prologue to act 1 or ct 1 to act 2, you get the picture.

Anyways, on with the show!:

* * *

"So what can we do? If the children's classes have numbers that are starting to decline, there's got to be a reason behind it?"

"It could be the fact that the children's classes are expensive. People might not have 3000¥ to spend a month anymore. Plus we only hold them during certain hours of the day."

"Well, lower the prices then?"

"It's not as simple as that, Naruto."

"Of course it is Gaara. One person spending 3000¥ a month of membership for children, or 5 people spending 1200¥ a month on membership for children, which is the bigger sum?"

"It's still not as simple as that, Naruto."

"Why not? We can host more evening classes, more weekend classes, and more holiday classes for kids. I don't see the problem!"

"Shikamaru, tell him…" Gaara looked over to the black haired man, who sat with his hands resting in front of his face, he continued staring intently at Naruto, who it didn't go unnoticed by.

"What? Something on my face?" Naruto asked, before slapping the sides of his face harshly, trying to remove what imaginable smudge he believed marked his face.

'_I can't believe this guy had kids at the same time as me_.' Shikamaru thought to himself, watching Naruto beat the hell out of himself trying to clean his face. He remembered speaking to Shikadai about them after they dropped Bolt off. Bolt was a twin apparently, to that girl, Himawari he saw in their apartment. Shikadai also said that Bolt once mentioned he didn't have a dad, didn't need a dad, and didn't want a dad. 'I can't believe that Naruto, whose been going on about having kids since we were fifteen would just up and ditch them…'

"Hey Shika, is it off?" He refocused on Naruto's words, seeing the large red marks across his face.

"No, not yet." Shikamaru smirked as Naruto groaned before returning to smack himself silly, Gaara looked over in amusement as Naruto beat himself trying to get off something that wasn't there. The guy was an idiot yes, but he wasn't someone to shirk away from a responsibility, he wouldn't leave those kids without their dad, and no offence to the girl for where she was situated, but he wouldn't have left them in such a crappy neighbourhood. '_He doesn't know…_'

* * *

"That idiot, Naruto… I wonder how he did it…" Sasuke pondered as he looked over the city's skyline from his office's window for a wall. "Making a business as successful as he has."

"He made have made it, but clearly he's not the one who runs it." Neji sat on the other side of the desk. "That Shikamaru Nara, he's smart, almost dangerously smart. I've seen people waltz in to my office and stutter out their plans for the future. That guy knew exactly what he wanted to do, and exactly the position he wanted to put us in."

"I suppose…" Sasuke responded, stilling staring out of the window. "So what he wants is something we haven't given before, loyalty for the price of loyalty. What do you think?"

"I think we'd be stupid to turn them down flat. Their reputation is strong, and growing rapidly, more rapidly than ours. Our deal with them will definitely be good for our portfolio." Neji retorted bluntly and honestly. "They won't fail, not with that Shikamaru at the helm."

"You're right, but we also can't afford to look weak, to look like they have full command over us." Sasuke spun in his chair to face Neji, the contract they were devising spread in front of them. "Naruto's a friend, but this is a business, and this is just a deal between two businesses, not friends. We need to show they need us more then we need them."

"So what do you think we should do?"

Sasuke smirked at Neji's question, as a businessman, a businessman determined to see the prosperity of his business, the answer was rather obvious.

* * *

"So what's up, Shika? It's quite rare for you to want to hang out for lunch." Naruto beamed towards his black haired CEO and friend, as they picked up their custom made sandwiches for one store of a popular chain of fast food restaurants.

"Well since things have been picking up we haven't had much time to talk like we used to." Shikamaru spoke with a cigarette in his mouth as they walked towards the park in the centre of the city.

"We could have just talked in the restaurant in Dattebayo, Choji makes great food!" Naruto grinned again. Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru's childhood friend and an old school friend of Naruto's, and also the son of the owner of the Akimichi restaurant chain. Very grandiose restaurants serving a whole variety of foods.

He remembered when Dattebayo was starting up, he insisted on it having its own restaurant and café for the customers and staff. And he didn't quite know how Shikamaru talked Choza into getting his chain of restaurants to combine into and sponsor the restaurant they were building, but Choji took the job as Head Chef and restaurant manager. And people seemed to turn up more when they heard that they served Akimichi cuisine.

"I can't have these inside Dattebayo." Shikamaru held up the burning cigarette in between his fingers, before flicking the blackened ash from the tip. "Besides, it's nice to get out of the office once in a while. Here's good." Shikamaru redirected himself towards a park bench, sitting down on it before stubbing out the cigarette on top of the bin beside it. "Hey, Naruto, do you ever see Kiba nowadays?"

"No, last time I saw the Kekkei Genkai wannabe was… pfft at Dattebayo's one year anniversary party. Didn't see or hear from him years before that, haven't seen or heard of him since." Naruto was unable to hide the sour look on his face. Kiba was a close friend when they were children, they were inseparable in grade school. But when it came to move into the next step of education after grade school. Kiba had opted to go to Hagaromo's school of Excellence. A snobby, preppy private school while Naruto, Shikamaru and Choji stayed in the public school; Konoha High.

Shikamaru gave a small snort of laughter, "Remember when we ditched Iruka-sensei's class and went to the Lake Tobirama?"

"Yeah! Choji brought a portable barbeque and Kiba went doggy paddling round the Lake for like fifteen minutes! He smelled like wet dog for hours!" Naruto laughed back heartily, before taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Or there was the time we skipped school for the day and went to that run down hotel? You and Kiba were competing for hours to see who could lift the heaviest piece of junk?"

"Yeah, I remember you saying that it was a waste of space, lying unused in the middle of the city. I remember telling you not to worry, that one day I'd build something there that would get people to see it again."

"You weren't lying." Shikamaru answered back, taking a bite of his sandwich. "It was always your thing, never going back on your word or making up lies. You came back to that crappy hotel, tore it down and built Dattebayo. Your promises, Choji's cooking, my smarts and Kiba's nose for trouble. We made a weird group…"

Naruto smiled back with a large grin showing both sets of white teeth, before taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Hey, Naruto, do you remember your 18th birthday party, when we went to that little club, Hamura's?" Shikamaru eyed the blonde man next to him, Shikamaru was not the type to live in the past, and he hadn't just spent time prattling on about it for nothing.

"Some of it, I don't remember. Things got pretty messy!" Naruto laughed again, thinking back to his first legal night out. He was the youngest of the four, and thus when Choji and Kiba graduated school before them, Naruto and Shikamaru were left to face the last year of school together. "Why?"

"I was just thinking about that girl you told us about, it was the first time I ever really saw you having any genuine one on one interaction with a girl, in fact it was the only time until you met Shion." Shikamaru mused while taking a bite of his own sandwich. "You know the one… the one you apparently…"

"Look, Shika I told you the story. You just said it wasn't like me to lie." Naruto grumbled out, giving the black haired man next to him a harsh glare.

"I know, but you never really spoke about it. No offence but to this day it still sounds a little unbelievable." Shikamaru retorted, squeezing and squirming a legitimate story Naruto refused to tell.

"You want the story?" Naruto looked at him proper. "I was pretty out of my head, and I met this girl. She said she felt uncomfortable because it was a student night at that club and her and her friends dolled themselves up so they could get in because they were still seventeen. We carried on talking to each other, I told you I was too drunk to even think about asking for her name or her number, and if I remember she was the same, she forgot to ask me anything like that as well. Next thing I know I wake up in some hotel room naked and alone with like fifty voicemails from you, Choji, Kiba and even my parents asking where the hell I am. That's all there was too it."

"And you don't remember anything else about her, what she looked like?" Shikamaru asked again with a raised eyebrow. The tone in the blonde's voice, the emotion. Shikamaru knew he wasn't lying so far.

"I remember she had dark hair, and she had the really pretty eyes. I'd never seen anything like them before…" Naruto laughed solemnly to himself, a small blush to his face. "And I remember talking with her, I can't remember what about, I just remember the feeling I got from just talking to her, the connection. It's weird, I was with that girl one night, and I've been with Shion for like four years now, it's a horrible thing to say, but I've always felt… I dunno, closer to that girl than I've ever done Shion…"

"Things have really got that crappy between you two, huh?"

"Yeah, ever since that time…" Naruto looked down to the ground slowly, "But enough about my crappy love life, you gonna tie the knot with Temari yet?"

"Why would I want to?" Shikamaru asked lazily, throwing the wrapping off his sandwich into the bin before taking out a new cigarette.

"Well you guys have been together since you were fifteen, you'll be turning twenty-six in a month. That's almost eleven years." Naruto responded with a laugh.

"Yeah, that's longer than most marriages last these days." Shikamaru responded with a lazy drag of his cigarette. "Me and Temari have a good thing going, we don't need some big fancy expansive day to prove what we already know. Besides, all that hassle planning it… far too trablesome."

"Yeah, but don't you want to make it, I dunno official or something? I know I'd like to be able to say 'Hey, this is my wife', y'know?" Naruto asked with a smile on his face.

Shikamaru gave a small grunt to himself, blowing out smoke before putting out his cigarette on the bin. "Let's go back yeah, we've still got loads to do with this expansion."

* * *

Hinata continued with knitting the long red scarf when a loud resounding knock echoed through her small apartment. Gently she placed the almost completed scarf on the table before walking over to the door.

"Ah hello, you are Shikadai's father yes?" She asked with a kind smile, seeing the black haired man standing on the other side of the door.

"Uh… yeah, sorry for coming round at this time…" He mumbled out quietly to himself, rubbing the back of his head. "Is it okay if I come inside?"

Hinata turned to see the time on the clock, before turning back to him, giving him a small nod before moving to allow him entry.

He looked quickly around the apartment. "Bolt and Himawari in bed?"

"Y-yes." She responded, ushering him to the couch to take a seat.

"Good, because this concerns them and I'm guessing you don't want them to know about this yet." Shikamaru answered as he eased into a seat. "Is it okay to ask about their father?"

"U-Um… T-They don't have a father." Hinata responded hesitantly, tucking her hair behind her shoulder.

"Well, that's not true. They wouldn't be here if they didn't." Shikamaru responded a dry smirk. "I don't really know how best to say this, so I'm just gonna come out and say it…"

"I know who their father is…"

* * *

_**A/N:**_ Yo! Me again, don't have much to discuss this time.

Until next time!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Yo! Damn! 71 reviews in 5 chapters, I don't think I've had a story this well received since A Kindred Spirt in it's prime... man I should update that... and Becoming the Legend... and Fairy Tail Utopia both versions... oh well, what ya gonna do! Anyways, a big thank you for believing in this project, it really means a lot.

Saying that, again this is a shorter chapter, than some previous ones, but I know how much I want to fit into a chapter, and if there isn't that much to talk about, I'm not going to waffle on trying to rack up 5K words, everyone'd get bored.

Another thing to bring up, a few reviews have said "Wouldn't Bolt and Himawaru be recognisable as Naruto's kids because of the whisker marks?". The answer is no. Because in this story, their is no 100ft Demon Fox to be sealed into Kushina, (I still think it's a stupid idea that the ninja world is like 'Oh, the seal gets really weak during childbirth, so let's seal the demons in women! What could possibly go wrong' (Enter Tobi)), therefore the Kyuubi was not present during Naruto's birth, so he never got whisker marks, simples yeah?

Anyway's on with the show!:

* * *

"My… My children's father?" She stumbled out quietly, staring at the black haired man sat across for her. "H-How would you know-"

"I know it sounds weird, and you don't have to believe me, and I even might be wrong…" Shikamaru responded, taking out a few photographs from his jacket. "But you son, Bolt, he reminds me of my friend, he looks like him when he was younger as well, see?"

He slid her the first photograph, she looked at it, seeing a small blond boy with great big blue eyes standing next to a grumpy looking black haired boy who looking like a smaller version of Shikamaru. "You've met him once, at Hamura's club seven years ago, in October."

She looked up from the picture with shock. "H-How do you know that?"

"Because I was there with him, it was his 18th birthday party after all." Shikamaru smiled again handing her another picture, this one was the same two boys, but now teenagers, the blonde looked ecstatic, and completely out his face, like he was screaming at the camera. The black haired boy besides him looked ticked off, but with a tipsy look to his face. "Look in the background of that picture." He added, causing her to squint at the background.

And she saw it, a blue haired girl with shoulder length blue her shaped in a bowl cut fashion, dressed in a simple purple dress sat at the bar, staring behind her towards the two boys, she saw her eyes particularly focused on the blond haired boy. "T-That's me."

"Yeah, and if my memory and my serves me right. You went away with this guy later that night, he disappeared later as well. This may all be a long shot, but when I dropped off Bolt the other day, I recognised you straight away." Shikamaru nodded back to her. "His name is Naruto Namikaze."

"Naruto-san?" She asked, thinking of the blonde man she had met a few days ago.

"Yeah, you know him?" Shikamaru retorted, eyeing the recollection in her eyes.

"Y-Yes, I met him in the store a few days ago. H-he was very nice and helped me." She smiled sweetly to herself. "Then… then he said something, something that reminded me of the boy, the father of Bolt and Himawari, but it was just a feeling, a fleeting moment, I haven't really seen him since to confirm anything."

"Well, I think this is their dad. He's one of my best friends, a bit dense sometimes but he means well." Shikamaru smiled. "This is just my guess, he might not be him, but jeez your son really looks like him, it can't be just a coincidence that your seven year old kid looks just like him and you were there seven years ago at Hamura's."

"W-Why are you telling me this?" She asked the black haired man curiously, not sure why he was divulging all his theories with her.

"Because he's always telling me how much he wants kids. And between you and me, his girlfriend has been… how do I word this… a bitch, recently." Hinata's face flared with a faints blush at his choice of words. "And he thinks about you, or at least the girl he met all those years ago. I may be cruel for saying this, but I'm kinda hoping, if he meets you, he'll get out of that relationship. I know he's trying to fix things with her, but he's one of my best friends, and from an outside view, there is no fixing it, it's just poisonous."

Shikamaru's eyes darted down the hall, obviously looking towards the children's bedrooms. "And I'm not saying you should run up to him and tell him that he has two kids, I'm not saying you even have to tell them or even listen to me. But those kids… they have the right to know who their father is if they want to."

* * *

"_They have the right to know who their father is if they want to."_

Hinata thought about the words she heard last night from the black haired man, he had left the photos for her, and she stared at that blonde boy in them for hours, without a shadow of a doubt this was the boy she met, the one she gave herself to. That same blond hair, he same bright blue eyes and that same smile, she could almost feel his personality through just the photo.

"Hinata!" She was snapped out of her trance by Neji, who stood in front of her desk with a brown envelope in his hand. "I need you to take to Dattebayo across town. It's a contract of service."

"Y-Yes," She responded, taking the envelope from Neji. "Who is it to be delivered too?"

"Shikamaru Nara, if possible." Neji responded, causing Hinata's eyes to widen with surprise at the name. "If not, deliver it to Gaara Sabaku or Naruto Namikaze. Oh and it's almost three, it'll take a good forty-five minutes to get there by bus, so just go pick up the kids after you've dropped it off."

Her breath was hitched at the sound of the blond haired man's name. He had mentioned he worked at Dattebayo when she met him a few days ago, "U-Uh yes, thank you, Neji-san…"

* * *

"Hello, welcome to Dattebayo, can I see your membership pass please?" A pretty blond girl with bright brown eyes smiled towards her from behind a reception desk.

"S-Sorry, I'm not a member. I-I'm here on behalf of Doujutsu. I am here to see Shikamaru Nara-san." Hinata replied humbly, showing her a pass from Doujutsu.

"Ah sorry, ma'am, Shikamaru-san is unavailable at this time." The girl replied with a kind smile.

"O-Oh, how about a Gaara Sabaku-san, o-or… a Naruto N-Namikaze-san?" Hinata retorted, still struggling to say his name after what Shikamaru had disclosed to her the other night.

"Yes! Gaara-san is also unavailable at this present time, but Naruto is available." The girl chirped happily, before pressing a buzzer at the side of her computer. "Naruto, a Miss-…"

"Hyuuga."

"Hyuuga is here to see you from Doujutsu."

"_**Thanks Lucy! Send her up!**_" A voice boomed back from the buzzer, the girl smiled and turned back to her. "On the fifth floor, Miss Hyuuga san. Just go left when you exit the elevator, and follow the corridor, it's the big office at the end."

"T-Thank you." Hinata gave a quick bow to the blond receptionist before scurrying towards the elevator, quickly pressing a button to open the door.

"Hold the door please!" She heard a voice shout, holding the door open for a man to rush in panting, dressed in a pair of tracksuit bottoms, comfortable gym sneakers and a tight orange shirt with Dattebayo wrote across the front. "Thank you!" He grinned, flicking his spiky rosy coloured hair backwards.

"N-No problem." She smiled back. "W-What floor?"

"Just the third." He grinned back, pressing the button and the doors closed. "Glad I got here in the nick of time! I was almost late for my class! So, you a new member?" He laughed loudly to fill the quiet elevator.

"N-No, I'm just here to give something to Namikaze-san." Hinata replied with a polite smile.

"Oh, well say hi to Naruto for me!" He laughed again as the elevator. "Well here's my stop!" He grinned once more before darting out of the elevator and through the doors directly across from them. "OKAY EVERYONE, LET'S GET FIRED UP!"

Hinata smiled again, everyone here appeared to be so very cheery. The elevator closed again and she continued upwards.

She skimmed across the hallway towards the large double door, knocking lightly on it. "Come in!" She heard his voice boom back and she entered.

The office was different to Neji's it was open, comfortable, soft mellow music played in the background, aside from the desk, there was also a large couch and TV.

But she found him currently sat on a mat cross-legged, his hands pressed together and eyes shut, almost as if he was meditating. His eyes opened, and instantly he beamed at her. "Hinata! Good to see you so soon again-ttebayo!" He laughed loudly.

"S-Sorry, Namikaze-san. Was I disturbing you?" She asked quietly, hanging by the door,

"Nah, just a bit of meditation. It was one of the first classes here at Dattebayo, plus I recommend it to all employees, helps with relaxing and relieving stress!" He grinned, untangling himself before standing up straight, seeing the puzzled look she was giving him. "Oh that's right, I told you I work at Dattebayo. Well it's kinda true, I do host classes sometimes, but truthfully, I own it!"

Hinata smiled back weakly to him. "I was asked to deliver this to you, Namikaze-san, by Neji-san." She responded, offering the envelope towards him.

"No need for the formalities, Hinata. Just call me Naruto!" He beamed back, gently taking the envelope, and ripping it open, with deep thought he stared at the papers in side. "Hmm, this looks like the contract between us and Doujutsu, better wait for Shikamaru to read this, see if everything is too his plan."

"T-That is fine, you can deliver it back whenever you wish." Hinata smiled again towards the blond man.

"Great!" Naruto beamed, placing the papers on the desk. "So you want a drink or something? It's quite a distance between here and Doujutsu."

"N-No thank you, I must be going." Hinata gave a quick bow and began to turn.

"Awww come on! You can stay for a little while!" He whined loudly, quickly running across the office to a small refrigerator, taking out two bottles of grape juice.

"Umm, maybe I could stay for a moment." Hinata responded with a light blush, seeing his large blue eyes digging into her soul. He beamed instantly handing her a grape juice before walking her towards the sofas, where they both sat down.

"So I take it you've met my cousin Karin?" He asked cheerfully as he opened the bottle in his hands.

"Yes, I work closely by her. I am Neji-san's assistant, and Karin-san is Uchiha-san's." She responded, opening her own bottle as she did so.

"Yeah, though she never mentioned she worked for Sasuke. Damn asshole, to wait all this time to let me know he's back in town. He's gonna get an earful when we meet up on Saturday." The blond man grumbled into the juice bottle, before looking back at her. "How's Bolt and Himawari?"

His sudden question startled her, to think he had remembered their names from only hearing them once almost two weeks ago. As she stared at him, she began to easily comprehend what Shikamaru talked to her about, this Naruto… Bolt was the spitting image of him. "T-T-They are fine. Bolt is still a little rambunctious, and Himawari-chan… she just needs some confidence."

"You know, it reminds me of myself when I was a kid." He mumbled back towards her. "Not the lack of confidence part, but I certainly had more energy then I knew what to do with… it was like I couldn't concentrate on anything for long periods of time, I myself brought my mom a lot of grief. My parents enrolled me in some martial arts classes, it really helped. That is where I met Sasuke as well. Maybe that could help Bolt." He spoke more positively than before. "As for Himawari, kids never lack confidence, some just have a hard time showing it. Put her in a team sport, and she'll soon shine like the sun."

"T-That would be nice, but I could never afford such a thing at this moment." Hinata smiled down weakly at her juice bottle.

The blonde's lips pursed next to her, before he walked over to his desk, pressing the buzzer on his desk. "Lucy!"

"_**Yes Naruto?**_"

"Could you set up three all access lifetime memberships for me please? One adult and two kids please?"

"_**Okay Naruto.**_"

"She's a good egg." Naruto turned to Hinata beaming. "Almost lost her at last year's Christmas party."

"_**Take your hand off the buzzer, Naruto.**_" Lucy's voice beckoned through the speaker. "_**And you know the deal, keep that old pervert fifty feet away from me at all times.**_"

"N-Naruto-san, I can't afford this." Hinata responded meekly, with a subtle frown to her face.

"Ah don't worry about it, Hinata! It's getting set up in my name, which means it's free!" He beamed once again. "Just pick them up when you get down stairs!"

"T-Thank you, Naruto-san." She blushed again, a soft smile gracing her face.

"No problem, Hinata." He smiled back, and as he stared at her graceful, blushing, smiling face, he couldn't help but smile softer, kinder, and more lovingly.

* * *

"So this is it, the contract?" Shikamaru held up the papers towards Naruto, shaking them a small bit.

"Yeah, I waited for you to get back and look over them. So what are they offering?" Naruto asked in return with a beaming grin.

"Their usual. A temporary contract, valid for one year of marketing assistance." Shikamaru responded back with a small smile.

"Eh!? What about all that talk about loyalty for the price of loyalty!?" Naruto yelled back in astonishment.

"To be honest, I never really expected them to go for it. I was simply just throwing that card on the table, to let them know where we stand. It's good that they gave us the temp contract, it means if they are crap or we have any transgressions it's a simpler opt out, similarly, if it's a good partnership, we can demand the loyalty we originally wanted at the end of the temp contract, if they refuse, or they offer us another temp, we just look elsewhere." Shikamaru smirked as if he had come out as the victor.

"So we're on? We can finally set our plans into motion?" Naruto asked excitedly, grinning from ear to ear.

Shikamaru smirked back in response. "Yeah, finally this expansion can get under way."

* * *

A/N: So that's the end of the chapter, next time, looks like it's time to party! (Rips off pants)

Nothing really to discuss this time either.

Until next time!


	7. Chapter 7

"So Naruto, we got the contract back. I'm glad you agreed to it, Sasuke-san and Neji-san will be pleased." Karin spoke cheerfully down her throne, sitting in the private kitchen on the top floor of Doujutsu.

"_**Yeah, I suppose we might be seeing more of each other Karin, what with meetings and stuff!**_" Her cousin's booming voice called back down her phone.

"So…" Karin spoke slowly, drawing circles on the table in front of her. "When you were here for your meeting and you burst into Sasuke-san's office, you and he mentioned going out, is it a celebratory thing now?"

"_**I dunno, y'know. It could be, I haven't seen Sasuke for ages. I think it's more like a get together or something**_."

"Really, so what do you have planned?" Karin asked curiously.

"_**Ehh, Sasuke said something about Saturday night, he wants to go to that nightclub, Mangekyo. I don't know how he plans to get in there though, as soon as it's open it's packed.**_"

"I think you're forgetting who Sasuke-san is." Karin responded with a smirk. "He will be able to get you in… anyways my lunch break is almost up, I'll see you around, Naruto." She hung up her phone, placing it on the table.

'_Thank you, Naruto…'_ Karin smirked victoriously to herself. '_Your big mouth has given me the chance for Sasuke-kun to see me outside of work.'_

She picked up her phone and began walking towards her desk. _'But I can't turn up to a night club by myself, it would be too suspicious, not to mention weird…' _She looked towards her desk, from across the room, she spotted the blue haired woman typing away at her computer. _'Plus Naruto probably won't leave Sasuke alone, I need someone to distract him so I can get close to Sasuke-kun._

The girl looked up, as if realising that she was being stared at. Hinata smiled happily towards her, and Karin grinned in return. "Say Hinata, what are you doing this Saturday?"

* * *

"I-Ino please, all this is rather unnecessary…" Hinata mumbled quietly as Ino played with the back of her hair, teasing it into a slight, effortless wave.

"Please Hinata. It's your first night out in who knows how long! You've got to look your best! Don't worry though, I'll be there to ensure that you get through the night!" Ino beamed back, Hinata could see her proud, grinning smile through the mirror sent in front of them.

"Last time I was aware, Ino. You weren't invited." Sakura spoke, leaning against the wall by the wardrobe, sifting through Hinata's clothes to find something less… motherly for Hinata to wear tonight.

"Didn't I just say its Hinata first night out in ages!?" Ino barked back at her pink haired friend. "Of course I'm going! You're going too, Sakura!" She almost screamed towards Sakura, before smiling sweetly towards Hinata again. "So you said someone at work invited you?"

"Yes. Her name is Karin Uzumaki, she is the secretary to the other co-CEO. She asked me the other day, I can't say I really wanted to, but she seemed very insistent that we bond more outside of work, so we can better work together." She replied with a small smile.

"Uzumaki, that names really familiar…" Sakura tapped her chin in thought. "Wait, isn't that the same as that family that pretty much owns an island offshore? You know, the one with Uzugakure, like one of the best holiday resorts in the world?"

"Yeah, you're right, Sakura!" Ino exclaimed in response. "Didn't the Hokage, Minato Namikaze marry an Uzumaki as well?"

"Of course you'd remember that fact, Ino." Sakura grumbled back out in annoyance. Minato Namikaze, the former Fourth Hokage of Konoha. He had a rather short tenor as Hokage, in fact only about a year or so. He resigned from the role just after Ino was born apparently, according to her mother. Rumour had it that he retired because he felt he was too young for the role, gaining the position at twenty-three, despite his great popularity with the public. Other rumours had it that it was due to him having a baby with his wife, and he resigned so he could spend time with his kid.

"Shut up, Sakura! You had just as big a crush on him as I did!" Ino screamed back at her. The man had still made public appearances after he resigned, and she remembered the pink blush that appeared on her pink haired friend's face when he would appear on their favourite talk shows. "Anyways, if she's really from such a prestigious family, I wonder what she's doing working as someone's secretary… N-No offence there, Hinata!"

"None taken, Ino." Hinata smiled back happily. "Sometimes, even those with a great heritage feel like they don't belong in it."

Ino smiled back softly. "There. Your hair's done. Now all that's left is some make up and you're golden. Sakura. You start getting ready as well. Let's hit the town!"

* * *

"I haven't worn anything like this in a long time…" Naruto stared at himself in his mirror. He had hope that sophistication wasn't in the itinerary for Sasuke's plans for tonight. Because if it was, with himself dressed in dark blue skinny-ish jeans. A black shirt too baggy for him, dropping past his waist and an orange Harrington jacket over it, and most importantly, his hi-tops, he'd never be allowed in anything too fancy.

"Shion! I'm going to meet Sasuke now! I probably won't be home until Sunday, so don't wait for me y'know!" He called behind him, laughing at his own joke about him not being home to the next day. As he guessed this would end up an all-nighter job.

* * *

"W-Wow mom… you look so pretty!" Himawari squealed in delight as her mother appeared in a dark blue dress and high heels.

"And what about you kid, anything nice to say from you?" A browned haired girl, younger than the other women present looked towards the blonde boy at her side, his arms followed and a bored look on his face.

He looked up to his mother, before looking away again. "Yeah, I guess you looked nice mom, can I go now Aunt Hanabi?" He looked up to the brown haired woman again, who nodded and immediately he darted off.

"Geez, that kid's has no tact at all does he?" Hanabi watched him run away before looking back to her older sister. "Glad to see you chose the dress I bought you. No offense to your friends, but as your sister, I'd know what would look best on you."

"Are you sure you are okay with babysitting, Hanabi?" Hinata asked softly to her younger sister, who nodded back in approval.

"Yeah, don't worry about it Hinata. To be honest it's a good chance to get to see them considering you refuse to ever come home. I was beginning to get jealous that Neji sees them more than I do."

"B-But what about your studies?"

"I've brought my laptop, and I've already told father I'll be staying here for the night, so do me a favour and have a good time. I've got these two covered." Hanabi smirked once again.

* * *

"So Sasuke, you never mentioned how you expect to get into Mangekyo?" Naruto asked as they walked along towards their destination. Sure enough, Sasuke had dressed more smartly them himself, wearing a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a few top buttons left undone. He also wore a pair of black skinny jeans and buffed Chelsea boots.

"I intend to get in through the front door." Sasuke replied nonchalantly, his eyes continued to fix themselves down the street.

"You know what I meant!?" Naruto barked back angrily, Mangekyo was the biggest club Konoha had to offer. It is almost impossible to get in at the time they had set off, the queue would be going round the block filled with people only hoping for but a few minutes inside.

"When I started my company Mangekyo was the first business to believe we could accomplish anything. At least that's what the manager said, personally I believe he came to us out of some obligation to me." Sasuke replied, stopping in his tracks looking up towards the sky. "Look, there's one of Mangekyo's billboards. Recognise anything?"

Naruto looked up, seeing the top half of a man's body with a red background behind him, filled with shadowy silhouettes of trees and crows, a white moon also peering behind his head. But the man himself, his dulled black hair framing his face, and two eyes with red Irises, the pupils had been stretched into a three-point pinwheel. "Is… Is that you, Sasuke?"

"Close, it's my older brother."

"You never mentioned you had an older brother before? So what was he the model for Mangekyo's advertisements or something?"

"He's also the main DJ there, and he owns and runs it." Sasuke looked back to a shocked Naruto, before gesturing with a nod to keep moving. "That's how I know we're going to get in. Now come on, it's just round the corner."

They both turned, Naruto instantly gaped at the size of the crowd already queued up for entry. He saw one bouncer keeping them all in an orderly fashion. Not like they would get past him, he wasn't as big as that security guard at Sasuke place, Juugo, but the guy was still pretty damn big.

"Uh, Sasuke, shouldn't we go get in the queue?" Naruto asked curiously as he saw Sasuke walking straight towards the bouncer man.

Sasuke tutted loudly, turning around to face him. "I don't wait in queues." He bluntly responded, before turning back around. Naruto quickly spend up to catch up to him.

"Well if it isn't little baby Sasuke. Rare to see you out and about, go right in." The bouncer grinned, ignoring the loud protests of the people queuing up as he opened the door for Sasuke.

He blocked the door with his arm however when Naruto attempted to enter as well. Naruto looked up to the massive man, his blue haired styled upwards to almost resemble a fin. He gulped nervously as the man's particularly small, scary looking eyes fixed on him. "Relax Kisame, he's with me." Sasuke spoke from behind the bouncer, and instantly the bouncer smiled.

"Go right in then. Any friend of little Sasuke is welcome here." The bouncer grinned, removing his arm from Naruto's path, Naruto laughed weakly before proceeding through.

"NARUTO!" He turned back to face the door when he heard his name being called. He saw Karin running towards him, followed by a pink haired girl and a blonde haired girl he had never met.

But his eyes fixed on the woman scurrying behind all of them, clearly not used to running in heels and a dress. "Hinata…" He whispered under his breath is wonder.

* * *

"Sorry girls, rules are rules. If you want to get in I'd suggest you hurry up and get in line before the queue gets even bigger." The massive man grinned down to them, blocking their entrance into the club.

"Oh come on, we're all pretty petite, you could easily squeeze all four of us in there. We don't take up much room." Karin spoke to the bouncer sweetly, hoping to persuade him into allowing them access.

"No. Now get in line."

"Fine." She huffed in return, before turning and stomping a few paces to where the others waiting for her.

"Guess we're not getting in then." Sakura responded, after having the introductions to Karin earlier on through Hinata stood waiting to see he result of Karin's plan.

'_No! This wasn't supposed to happen, we we're supposed to get in, and then I could find Sasuke-kun!'_ Karin sobbed in her head despairingly.

"Maybe it's for the best. We should just call it a night." Hinata spoke with a small smile.

"Ha look at those two idiots!" Ino laughed, pointing towards two men, a black haired man and a blonde one as they walked towards the door, ignoring the queue. "If we couldn't get in that way they sure won't!"

Her laughter turned to shock as the bouncer smiled and let the black haired one through without a problem, the blond was barred momentarily, before the black haired one returned to speak to the bouncer, suddenly the bouncer grinned again and let the blonde past.

"Wait a minute… that's… NARUTO!" Karin shouted before darting off towards the blonde man, who turned back to face her.

'N-Naruto-san… what's he doing out here?' Hinata panicked, yes she assumed they could be considered acquaintances, maybe even friends. However she did think about him more than one would usually think about a friend. A faint blush appeared across her

"Hey Karin, what are you doing here?" Naruto spoke cheerily from behind the bouncer as the group of women approached him.

"Well Hinata and I planned to get to know each other outside of work, and it's eventually evolved into a girls' night out." Karin grinned happily. "Hello Sasuke-san, I didn't see you there."

"Karin." Sasuke nodded in return to her greeting.

"Well what are you doing out here, you guys coming in or not?" Naruto beamed happily again.

"Sorry Naruto, we can't just walk in like you and Sasuke-san have, we need to go get in line." Karin replied quietly. "See you inside maybe."

"Oh don't be like that, Karin. I'm sure Sasuke can get you guys in, right, Sasuke?" Naruto turned to his black haired friend and grinned.

Sasuke looked back at them with an eyebrow raised, before sighing loudly. "I guess. Kisame, they're with me as well."

"Okay then! In you all go!" The large man grinned a shark like grin before stepping out of the way, allowing them access. As each of them past he placed a stamp on their hands. Three tomoe in a circular formation.

The club was set in a large building, and it only appeared larger inside. The floor was already filled with people dancing, couples shying away into the corners of the building for a bit more than dancing, and the bar surrounding by people desperate to kick their night off.

"Welcome to the first of five floors to Mangekyo. Each of the first four floors plays a different type of music. The fifth floor is VIP only, but it appears, Kisame took that I said you were with me a little too seriously and gave you access." Sasuke spoke barely louder than the music, he held up his hand and pointed to the stamp. "Go up there if you want, or stay on one of the other floors. Come on, Naruto, let's go." He spoke to the blonde male, looking at the women one last time, his eyes caught the green eyes of the pink haired women quickly before he turned and left.

"Uhh…" Naruto uttered, turning to face Karin. "See you around, Karin." He spoke to his cousin, before catching the white eyed female with her. "See you around as well, Hinata." He smiled softly before moving to catch up to Sasuke.

* * *

"I'm telling you, Hinata, he totally likes you!" Ino yelled loudly to the blue haired woman sat next to her at the bar. Throwing back her drink in one large swig. "The way he looked at you before he took off, there isn't a doubt in my mind."

"O-Oh, I don't think he does, Ino. You see, he has a girlfriend-"

"Wait! Naruto? As in the guy you met the other week!?" Ino's eyes bulged out as she stared at Hinata. "Oh my! So he's the one you like!? Well you got good taste, Hinata."

"Yes, but Ino he has a girlfriend." Hinata responded firmly.

"So? Doesn't stop people attracted to other people, does it?" Ino responded as a shrug. "Remember I was with someone else when I met Sai. Cheating is wrong, yes. And thankfully I broke up with him before starting anything with Sai. But the heart wants what the heart wants… and if this guy's heart wants you, I say grip it in your hands, dig your nails in and never let go… Wait so that guy, Naruto… he's also the one who you think is… y'know…?"

Hinata nodded quickly in return. Sipping on the wine she had in front of her.

"Well I can see why…" Ino sighed heavily, pouring the alcohol into her glass until it filled almost to the brim before chugging down a large gulp. "I didn't want to bring it up but he looks like Bolt, I mean… He _seriously_ looks like Bolt. Or Bolt looks seriously like him, whichever way you want to put it."

"S-Sakura has been gone a long time, I wonder where she is?" Hinata spoke firmly, hoping for anything to take it off the current subject.

"Hey." The both turned to a white haired man that had leaned on the bar next to Ino, grinning wildly. He looked squarely into Ino's eyes.

"Yes?" Ino asked bluntly in return to the man's stare.

"You know, I'm something of an author. And you're beauty can inspire me to write a love story."

"Three things." Ino responded before gulping down the last of her drink. "One. You've got to be what sixty? Aren't you a little old to be in here? Two. That was perhaps the worst pick up line I have ever heard. And three. I have a boyfriend. Come on, Hinata, let's go find Sakura. That pink haired forehead is probably murdering someone for trying the same crap on her that this guy pulled on me."

Ino grasped Hinata's had before pulling her towards the stairs, leaving the white haired man by himself. "Pink hair, huh?" He moved to touch his cheek, flinching at the faint touch. "Still stings."

* * *

"Get lost you old pervert!" Sasuke watched with amusement as that pink haired girl with Karin slapped the old white haired man across the face before storming away.

He chuckled silently to himself, sipping back the drink before pushing the glass down the bar, gesturing with his fingers to the bartender to prepare the next drink. '_Naruto's been gone forever…_' Sasuke thought to himself as he waited for his next drink. He had been sat here for a good hour alone, ignoring all the people around him. '_Probably went after that blue haired woman he couldn't get his eyes off.'_

He felt like the ground shook as the pink haired woman crash into the bar stool next to him, still breathing furiously over her previous encounter. "Nicely handled." He spoke to her.

She turned back to face him, glaring angrily still. "Excuse me?"

"That guy. Nicely handled." He reiterated, pointing behind himself to the exact spot where she slapped the guy. "But looks like you are still reeling from it."

"Just need something to wash the disgusting taste out my mouth." She muttered back, the black haired man nodded, gesturing to the bartender again to prepare another drink.

The bartender, slid a glass filled with alcohol towards the pink haired woman, who brushed a large gulp back. "So you're Karin's boss?"

The black haired man darted his eyes towards her, but took a swig of his drink. "She said you act like nothing really interests you." The pink haired woman continued.

"Not everything I see is so interesting." He responded casually, wincing slightly when the last drop of alcohol went down his throat. He gestured to the bartender again for another drink. "There are rare occasions. For example, you."

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise. "You… you think I'm interesting?"

He nodded slowly for a response. "You're not like them."

"Like who?"

"Them." He turned in his chair and she followed, she saw girls alone, girls in pairs, and girls in groups dancing together. Some dancing for fun, other's dancing almost provocatively. However, she did notice that every so often, their eyes would dart towards the black haired man sat next to her, they would linger on him, entranced.

"What's wrong with girls taking interest in you? Isn't that what every guy wants?" Sakura asked with confusion, looking back at him.

"Most guys are idiots." He responded, earning a small smile from the pinkette. "They want only one thing. I, on the other hand, want many things. And they, all of them, have nothing I want."

Her eyebrow raised with interest. "Why?"

"Because _they_ only want one thing." He smirked confidently in return, taking another sip of his drink. "So… if you're not like them… what is it you want?"

Sakura smirked as confidently as he did, drinking the last of the contents of her own glass before she leaned in towards him, faces almost touching. Their eyes locked onto one other. Her smirk grew before she finally spoke. "I, too, want many things…"

Sasuke let out a dry, low chuckle as he leaned back, downing the last of the alcohol in his own glass before gesturing to the bartender one last time. "And that's why you are interesting…"

The bartender arrived with a new glass filled with alcohol and placed it in front of him. Sasuke slowly slid it towards the pink haired woman, before he lifted two fingers and playfully, but gently prodded her in the centre of her forehead. "See you around." He spoke with a smile before leaving, leaving her too watch him walk towards the stairs from the VIP floor.

* * *

"Hinata! There you are!" Naruto beamed as he leaned on the bar next to her. "I've been looking for you!"

"Y-You have? W-Why?" She responded back meekly, probably barely audible over the loud chattering and louder music surrounding them.

He looked at her for a moment, puzzled by the question. "I-I don't know. It just felt like something I wanted to do."

She smiled back sweetly, before looking back towards the glass in her hands, her thumbs played with one other as they gripped around it. "So… how's the new job?" He took her silence as a queue to continue.

"It is very nice. Neji-san is very helpful and considerate towards my... situation, you know, with my children still being so young. Plus my co-worker, Karin is very nice." She smiled, before remembering how the red haired woman reacted when she saw the blonde enter the club. "She… She seemed to know you quite well, Naruto-san?"

"Yeah, she's my cousin!" He grinned back happily. "From my mom's side, her dad and my mom are siblings. Funny story, when we were little, I used to be jealous that she had the pretty, straight red hair. My mom has it as well, and it made me angry I didn't get it!"

"I… I like your hair Naruto-san…" She blushed into her drink, taking a small sip.

He smiled back softly, his eyes almost sparkling with… something. "And I like yours too."

She blushed more fiercely, but the smile grew on her face. "I, um… also like your eyes, Naruto-san…"

His smile grew larger wither her words. "I like yours too, Hinata…" He chuckled, swigging back his drink. His head perked as he listened to the song that resonated through the club's floor.

_I must be tough  
I must behave, I must keep fighting_

"You wanna dance?"

_Don't give it up  
I want to keep us compromising_

He gently took her drink from her hands and placed it on the bar, he took her hand and guided her towards the dancefloor. "B-But I don't know how…"

_Open your arms and pray_

_To the truth that you're denying_

He grinned widely once more. "You just got to feel it-ttebayo!" He pulled her to the centre of the floor, stopping her in front of him.

_Give in to the game  
To the sense that you've been hiding_

"Here, we'll start with some simple." He smiled again, taking her hands in his and slowly pulling them up to wrap around his neck.

_Where are you taking me?  
I can't be blamed_

Her heart began to beat faster as she felt his hands skim the dress around her waist, delicately finding what felt for her the perfect place for them to rest.

_I want you to want me again_

They began to rock slowly from side slowly. Her eyes locked into his, and suddenly, there smiles faded as if a spark occurred between them, as spark of something else, something stronger, something primal.

_Is it desire_

_Or is it love that I'm feeling for you_

Their rocking ceased, as their hips moved closer it turn to just their hips swerving back and forth, carelessly brushing against each other. But their eyes never left the others, almost as if, that one small spark set their world on fire.

_I want desire  
'Cause your love only gets me abused_

"_But the heart wants what the heart wants… and if this guy's heart wants you, I say grip it in your hands, dig your nails in and never let go…"_

"Naruto…" She spoke breathlessly, she could feel his one warm breath caress her face in short strong pants. "There is another part of you that I like…"

"What's that?"

Her face moved closer to his, their foreheads pressed against each other. "Your lips…"

And he kissed her, quickly and passionately, his hands moved up to cup her face. And after but her moment, her hands moved back from his neck to cup his. She kissed him back, his lips overpowered hers nonetheless, as if in complete control of the moment.

Until he pulled away abruptly, a look of shock across his face. "I-I-I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that…"

"N-Naruto-san…"

"I gotta go… I'm sorry." And without a further moment he began to walk backwards, still gazing at her. He turned to make a dash towards the door and disappeared into the night.

* * *

"Quietly…" Naruto whispered to himself as he entered his apartment. He left the lights off and untouched, leaving the night sky to keep him in the darkness. Gently closing the door behind him.

"Okay... got home safe, just got to wait till morning to get killed instead…" He continued as he looked down the hall towards his bedroom. Thinking about the woman sleeping in there, and the betrayal he had just committed against her.

Lost in his though, he did not notice the couch in front of him, flipping over it and landing on the coffee table in front of it.

He groaned loudly full of pain. His hands moved to grip his head. "Where in the world have you been!?"

His eyes shot open, he looked around, seeing the sun rising high in the sky, and blocking it from his eyes, was Shion, still in her pyjamas, glaring hard down towards him.

"Ahh shit…"

* * *

**A/N:** Yo! Been awhile since I updated and I have a very good excuse. You see, there I was minding my own business. When this old wizard in grey told me I was to carry a great ring to a volcano. So after a long trek, getting stabbed by a possessed guy, fighting a giant spider and getting my ring finger bitten off, I find out the guy had massive eagles that could have just carried me there. What a prick.

Also, Bloodborne, Dark Souls 2 SotFS, and Daredevil came out.

The song if anyone was interested is Years &amp; Years - Desire, I don't own the song... except when I'm on the dancefloor boom! All credits to artist, check them out, first album is coming out real soon.

Got two words for you. Story Progression. Reading the reviews a few people were saying, 'Just tell Naruto they're his kids already'. Well if I did that where would the story be. It be like: C1 - Naruto and Hinata meet up. C2 - Naruto finds out he's Hinata's babydaddy. C3 - Naruto becomes super dad, now with instant perfect parenting skillls (only 99.99 + P&amp;P). C4 - Boom. C5 - Happy ending. Where's the drama, the funnies, the razmataz in a story like that!?

Anyways, next chapter will be up when it's up.

Until next time


	8. Chapter 8

"You look terrible Naruto, but you smell worse." Shion looked down towards her blond boyfriend still laying down on the floor between the couch and the coffee table. "You stink of sweat, alcohol, smoke and… is that perfume!?"

"I was in a club!" Naruto laughed back, before groaning to sit upright, tightly clenching his back as he did so. "I was surrounded by hundreds of people. Things get hot, I danced a little bit, so I got sweaty. And as it was a club, I drank a fair amount of alcohol, hence why you found me on my ass at this very spot. The smoke I can't really explain, but you know I don't smoke! I guess the smell of people who do just rubs off into your clothes or something, I don't know I can never really smell smoke coz I'm with Shikamaru a lot and he's always got one in his hand!" He laughed loudly, scratching the back of his head.

"And the perfume?" She scowled back in return.

"Like I said, I was in a club, with hundreds of people crowded inside. This might be shocking, Shion, but some of them are female, they bump into you, and you bump into them. Their perfume rubs off on you, just like how cologne will rub off on them!" Naruto spoke back in return, struggling to stand up to face his girlfriend.

"Don't get snarky Naruto." Shion huffed, crossing her arms across her chest. "You could have told me you were going out."

"I did!" The blonde yelled back in return. "I told you I was going out!"

The girl continued to bore into the blonde. "Well I didn't here you."

"And that's my fault?" He looked back at her with a weird look, before he groaned loudly, carrying himself slowly to a chair y the table and sliding into it. "I'm sorry, my head y'know…"

He heard her walk behind him and towards the kitchen, taking a mug and placing the kettle on. "So who did you go out with? Where?"

"With Sasuke. To Mangekyo, his older brother owns it." He groaned loudly, placing his head on the table, he heard the sound of a mug being placed next to him, he could feel the heat searing from it. "Is that coffee?"

"You look terrible, Naruto, which means you must have had a good time." He heard her reply.

"I did. I saw Karin out as well, you remember Karin, right?" He laughed into the wood of the table top. "She was out with some of her friends, and…" His mind began to replay the final scenes of the night, the dance with Hinata that led innocence to desire, that opened a door foreign to him, the kiss that, for its duration, caused him to forget the existence of the world around him.

"And what?" He heard her speak again, clearly interested in the ending of that sentence.

"Nothing, really, I just remembered that I didn't actually see much of Karin or her friends, honestly, Sasuke skulked off someone as well, I couldn't find him when I went to leave. He sat up again, pulled the porcelain white cup of coffee into his hand before taking a big gulp of it.

He sighed loudly, smacking his lips together as he set the coffee mug back down. He looked across to Shion on the other side of the table, finding her looking down towards the table, her brow furrowed with some combination of emotions. "What's the matter?"

"Lipstick…" She answered in a hoarse, near silent whisper.

His own brow furrowed in confusion as he looked at her. "What?"

"Where you just drank from on that mug, you left a print of lipstick…" He watched her lift a hand and point towards the mug. He followed her pointing finger and sure enough, on the mug was a faint print of his lips in a deep husk of red. "Naruto… why are you wearing lipstick?"

"Because I kissed a girl last night." He replied honestly, looking down towards the table to avoid the vision of pain in her eyes. He seriously doubted she would believe that he had decided to borrow some of her lipstick before he went out. "But Shion, you have to believe me when I say that is all that happened."

"Oh I believe that." She hissed back angrily. "If more than that happened, I wouldn't have found you hanging off the coffee table, would I?"

"I guess not…" He couldn't find anything else in the recesses of his mind to say, he looked up seeing a tear fall from Shion's eye, but above her eye, he saw a vein bulge on her forehead. He sighed inwardly, thinking again of the previous night's antics, if only he had found Sasuke early, but somehow the raven haired man always found a way to give him trouble. _'Sasuke always gets me in the shit, I hope he's having a worse morning than I am.'_

* * *

Onyx eyes broke open as the light of the sun shifted to hit him in the face. He sat up in his bed and smacked his dry lips together, he looked around the room before sighing, pulling his hand through his hair.

And that's when he noticed it, truth be told it was pretty hard to miss. He carefully picked it up and held it in front of his face between his two fingers.

He continued to just stare at the long strand of pink hair clutched between his fingertips. He smirked as he relived the moments he experienced with its previous owner.

"_Are you going to tell me your name?" He asked as their lips parted, both panting heavily._

"_I know your type, you're the type of guy that likes to be in control." She responded, crushing her lips back into his for another powerful kiss._

_He broke the contact once again. "That doesn't answer my question."_

"_Yes it does." She grinned, before grabbing him by his shirt and pulling him into his bedroom. As they stood at the foot of the bed she began attempting to undo the buttons on his shirt, but in her drunken, lust filled state, the result was her simply ripping his shirt open before forcefully pulling the shirt off him. "You want to know my name because you believe it will give you control over this situation. Well I'm going to make you remember this, I want you to wake up thinking of who I am. And until you deserve to know my name, Sasuke Uchiha, I am the one who is in control." She grinned again, pushing him to sit down on the bed._

_Instantly he stood up, looking down to face her once again. With a surprise to her he grabbed her by the back of the legs, hoisting her up. Subconsciously, almost naturally, she wrapped her legs around his waist. He went into her neck, kissing and almost roughly nibbling on the soft skin, earning a moan of excitement from the woman. "You're in control?" He chuckled into her skin, before looking up to stare into her emerald green eyes. He smirked confidently at her. "Don't bet on that for an instant."_

_Their lips mashed together once again, and her laughter echoed through the room as they fell backwards onto the bed._

He smiled again as he placed the hair back down. He looked around the room, noticing that she was gone. He noticed a piece of paper on his bedside cabinet. He picked it up and read it carefully, his eyes having to squint to actually focus on the words.

_That was fun._

_I left you something of mine. You said you liked them and honestly I can see why, they really suit you! If you can find me, Sasuke Uchiha, you deserve my name! Start searching shannaro! xxx_

He laughed dryly as he stared at the note. "That girl…" He spoke to himself. She really was something else, she really was interesting. He stood up out of his bed and moved to the window, looking out across the city beneath his apartment. "Don't worry, I will find you."

He turned with a smile to his face, which faded the minute he caught his reflection in the mirror. He continued to stare at himself for a moment, before confusion sprung into his mind.

"Why am I wearing her underwear?"

* * *

"Who was she?" Shion asked bluntly as she bore into the blue eyes of the blond haired man.

"Her name's Hinata." Naruto responded honestly, he looked towards the clock on the wall. 11:30. Shion had woke him out of his stupor at eight, and they had been arguing since.

"Hinata. That woman you met the other week!?" Shion laughed as she stormed back and forth across the apartment, Naruto remained sat at the table but had turned in his chair to face her. "I knew it. The way you were speaking about her, I just knew it! You were attracted to her weren't you!?"

"Not at first!" He shouted back angrily and honestly. "At first she was just someone I want to lend a helping hand too. But then we met again when she delivered the contract for my marketing contract. And before you say anything that isn't some fancy code word for sex. Her cousin owns Doujutsu and she works for him, she literally delivered the contract of services between Dattebayo and Doujutsu! We started speaking then, and then again last night we were speaking and dancing and I… I felt something that I haven't felt in a long time…"

"And what's that?" She bit back, stopping in her tracks to glare at him more powerfully.

"HAPPINESS!" He screamed back louder than her voice had raised throughout their entire argument. "She made me feel happy, Shion! She made me want to smile! It was a nice change from wanting to scream all the time y'know!"

Shion stood in a stunned silence for a minute. Simply staring at the blond, Naruto sighed heavily, turning back in the chair and placing his arms on the table and resting his head on top of them. "How could you do this, Naruto? It's adultery. It's a sin!"

"Really? Kissing someone else is a sin?" He asked in a muffled voice, not even lifting his head from its resting place.

"It's a principle, Naruto! It's one of His commandments!" She argued back.

"What are the others?"

"What?" She asked back in an angry, but confused tone.

"The other commandments given by your God. What are they? Tell me them in order?"

She paused for a moment. "One – I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other god before me. Two-"

"You can stop, I've already broke that one." He jutted in, sitting back up to face her. "I tried Shion, I really did. But you have your God, and I have mine. That's not going to change."

She glared angrily again. "Don't make this into about religious beliefs Naruto. This is about trust. How can I ever trust you again?"

His very breathe exhumed anger, rage. "How can you trust me?" He stood up from his chair and marched towards her in a blind fury, stooped mere inches from her. "HOW CAN YOU TRUST ME!? THAT'S RICH COMING FROM YOU!"

"What are you talking about, Naruto?" Shion looked at him confused.

"Don't you dare…" He laughed, stepping away from her before turning and throwing the table off its legs, she jumped at the sound of the wood crashing against the floor, the vase and mug smashing against the laminate wood flooring. He turned back to her and pointed furiously. "DON'T YOU DARE ACT LIKE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!"

She continued to stand in a stunned, shocked silence, she saw from his own eyes the tears beginning to form in them. "I HAD A RIGHT TO KNOW!" He screamed back in pain and fury. "I HAD THAT RIGHT AT LEAST! AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN GIVE ME THAT!" His laughter mixed into his heavy pants, which almost began to sound like sobs. "Instead… How do I find out...? I find the invoice from that fucking clinic in the stuff for the shredder!"

Her eyes widened in realization, which caused Naruto to laugh again. "Yeah… I know. I bet for months now you were wondering why things had changed between us. And I had been waiting for months for you to tell me, but you never did. You want to talk about trust? You want to talk about forgiveness? You want to talk about the likes and dislikes of your God, Shion!? Well He may not like adultery, but I'm willing to bet He dislikes abortion a hell of a lot more!"

"That has nothing to do with this!" Shion shouted back to the furious blond man.

"IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THIS!" He screamed back. "TELL ME WHY!? WHY DID YOU DO IT!? AND WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME!?"

"BECAUSE I DIDN'T THINK WE WERE READY!" She argued back, a tear began to form in her own eyes. "And I didn't tell you because I knew you would get like this!"

"AND WHO ARE TO DECIDE IF I'M READY TO HAVE A KID OR NOT, SHION!?" Naruto cried out again, more tears began to fall from his face. "I get that it's your body in the end. But I had the right to know. I had the right to give my two cents and have my say about it… That kid… it may have been growing inside you, Shion. But it was a part of me as well…"

He sighed deeply and heavily, before moving towards the couch, sitting down on it and gripping his head in his hands. "I can't take this anymore, Shion. I can't take this anger anymore…"

She stood still, staring at the back of the blond haired man. More tears began to flow from her eyes. "W-What are you saying, Naruto…?"

* * *

"Don't let Bolt or Himawari see you like this, sis. You look hungover and horrible." The brown haired girl slip a cup of coffee towards her older sister, who thanked her quietly and took the cup in both hands.

She smiled before sitting down on the chair opposite her. "So judging by that smile on your face you had a good time last night, but judging by how your mascara has run down your face, it looked like it ended badly. Are you going to tell me what happened?"

The blue haired woman continued to smile, remembering the moment she had experienced with the blond haired man, remembering the feeling of his hands on her waist, the taste of his lips… and the look of guilt on his face as he ran away.

Hinata smiled again, but sniffled as she wiped away the newly forming tears. "I guess you could say it was a little of both."

* * *

He pounded on the door again, harder than he did previously, he stood waiting just on the other side.

The door suddenly swung open, revealing a long white haired man glaring on the other side, he looked even worse than what he assumed he did. "Naruto?" He croaked out dryly like some old frog. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Like half one in the afternoon?" The blond responded dully.

"Exactly! What the hell are you doing here so early?" The older man groaned out angrily. "I mean come on, Naruto! I had a long, fruitless night last night. I got slapped in the face, some other chick shot down my best pick up line, and quite frankly-"

"Jiraiya. I broke up with Shion." The blonde haired man silenced the older man quickly. "So are you going to let me in? It's not like you've got someone else in there right?"

"Yeah I suppose…" Jiraiya sighed, before moving to allow the blond inside. "Sit down on the couch, I'll go get my notepad then you can tell me all about it."

"Why would you need your notepad?" The blond asked in confusion.

"Inspiration has to come from somewhere you know." He grinned as he closed the door behind them.

Naruto turned back to stare at the older man angrily. "You're using my love life to write one of your crappy novels?"

"Well kinda… Just bits of it really. I've tweaked some things as well. Made the protagonist's girlfriend more pious. Got this great story behind it as well. Menma, that's you, finds his soul mate at a supermarket, they both go for this red scarf, you know red thread of fate, anyway he begins an affair with this woman and realises she is the one he loves and gets torn between the past and future in terms of love."

"Have you… Have you been following me, Jiraiya?" The blonde asked with a mixture of curiosity and anger.

"No. Why would I be-" His eyes widened with realisation. "No!" He exclaimed with a wide, almost perverse grin on his face before he giggled like a schoolgirl who had just heard some rather juicy gossip. "I'm gonna really need my notepad now!"

* * *

**A/N**: Yo! Funny story, I had the first 230 words for this chapter wrote up a week ago... well I guess it's not that funny... and I guess that's not really a story... so I guess it's just a sentence really. Anyways, (Fixes bowtie) It's discussion time!

The Last: Naruto the Movie - Being in the land of tea, crumpets and loves (That's England to all of you). I was not given the opportunity to pay to see The Last: Naruto the movie on the big screen. So, unfortunately, I had to stream a free version of it online. There's good quality Korean dub, eng sub floating around. And when Road to Ninja came out I was a bit confused that a good quality Korean dub with eng sub came out before a good quality Japanese dub with eng sub came out, but with The Last, the Korean voice over kind of makes sense. Because while the animation is astounding (that scene with Hinata and Naruto by the lake with all the glowing butterflies when Naruto says 'It's not like I love you or anything, senpai' was beautiful), the whole plot line and script to the film is like a really bad Korean soap opera.

Two things I've learned this chapter (and the previous one): 1) SasuSaku is a lot easier to write than NaruHina, that's right, it's SasuSaku, all this stuff with Karin is just a bigger troll than a girl with a pair of glasses (Naruto 700+1 readers will understand that reference)

2) I've discovered that when you play on the smart, strong, confident qualities that Sakura possesses (because she does have those qualities, they just weren't displayed as much and to the fullest potential as they could have been in the manga), she is actually pretty fun to write.

Rating - As you can see by the 'T' somewhere on your screen, this is T rated - for Terrific. At least I think that's what that stands for... Nah I'm just kidding, as there were some swear words involved in this chapter and heavily implied notions of casbah rocking. I should mention that I intend to keep the T rating, ergo I will not I repeat NOT be writing the aforementioned casbah rocking. Because this author is one classy, sophiscated broad who doesn't write smut. We may arrive at scenes leading to funky town, or we may arrive at scenes after the casbah has been well and truly rocked. But we'll cross that slimy bridge when we get to it.

What Shion did - We found out what Shion did, Naruto mentioned something earlier about 'that time' in a previous chapter that had been causing the problems. That was that time, Shion got pregnant and had an abortion behind Naruto's back (The scoundrel). Ever since like chapter two I knew what Shion had done, because it was an interesting topic (Well I thought it was interesting), there's already a fair whack of discussion surrounding abortion already, and abortion wasn't really the problem, it was the fact Naruto was never told she was pregnant, or that she decided to have the abortion. That bit is the topic of discussion. I had never heard about this until I actually went looking for it, but there actually discussions about men's rights when it comes to abortion. Like, if the woman doesn't want the baby, but the man does, is it right for the woman to deny the man their child without consent? Obviously in extreme situations (like rape), the man has no right to say what happens to the kid, (hopefully because he is in prison), because hey, it not like he asked for her consent, why should she ask for his. I thought that was quite an interesting point of discussion. Is anyone even reading this anymore, just checking. Similarly, if the woman wants to keep the baby but the man doesn't, is it right for the woman to force the man to become a father? I'm a bit hit and miss with that part, because if the man didn't want to become a father their is plenty of protective aids out there to avoid said situation. I know when the blue moon rises and I play, I play safe, got a helmet, shin pads, bulletproof vest, everything. Anyways, as with chapter 3 and the whole religion thing taking a centre, I apologise if I offended anyone with this topic, it wasn't my intent, and I'd love to hear your views on the subject, PM me or mention it in a review.

Anyways, next chapter will be up when its up, and guess what it involves! Wait for it... wait for it... wait for it...!


	9. Chapter 9

"I'm gonna go to Uzu for a couple of weeks, Jiraiya." Naruto spoke to the older man sat next to him. "Clear my head, y'know?"

"Naruto, you've just survived one encounter with a hurt, pissed off woman and now you want to throw yourself back into the firing line by going to see your mom?" Jiraiya laughed loudly. "Good luck with that."

"Yeah I know. But… I don't know I guess I just need some of mom's home cooking." The blond smiled back to the white haired man.

"You should tell her that. If she hears that, maybe she'll reduce you from a death sentence to a serious maiming, if you're lucky, she'll just kick your ass." Jiraiya laughed again, placing the herbal tea back on the counter. "So… You haven't told me about this other girl. What's she like?"

"She's cool, y'know. She's nice, sweet, she's got this really cute smile… and when I was speaking to her… it just felt comfortable, it felt right y'know." The blond smiled back with content. "I might have hurt her though. I kissed her then ran off with guilt."

"Then what the hell are you sitting round talking to me for!? Go talk to her before you leave." Jiraiya nearly ordered like a commanding officer.

"Shouldn't I like, y'know stay single for a bit. I have just come out of a serious relationship, Jiraiya." The blond asked back with curiosity.

"Naruto, those who use the 'I've just come out of a serious relationship' excuse to avoid their feelings are… It's not right, Naruto. If you like her, go get her, screw the past man, because that's what it will always be, the future… a future with her… that can change, and if you decide to keep her waiting because you've just come out of a serious relationship and you feel obligated to stay single for a while, you may discover she won't wait that long, if you want something grab it when you have the chance." Jiraiya replied with one of his rare, serious, yet brilliant moments of sage like wisdom.

"Wow, Jiraiya… That was actually pretty good advice." The blonde responded with a tone of astonishment in his voice.

"Of course it was, it came from me." The white haired man grinned back proudly, pointing to himself with his thumb. "Now get out of my face. Oh, and get her a present or something if you kissed her and ran out on her, show that you're not that much of a jackass!"

* * *

"Neji." Sasuke entered into the brown haired man's office without knocking. Causing the man to look up from his computer.

"Sasuke, it's very rare for you to enter my office, usually it's the other way round. What can I do for you?"

"How are the initial drafts for Dattebayo's marketing campaign coming along?" The black haired man asked, leaning against the frame of the door.

Neji gave a quick nod. "Very well. As this is their first real marketing campaign, they've pretty much allowed us complete control over the planning development, but that Shikamaru Nara. He's demanded to have the final say on each stage before we move to the next." Neji smirked, before holding up a manila folder. "I've got the initial ideas in this folder. I was going to have Hinata deliver it later."

"Don't bother her with it. I'll take it." Sasuke responded, moving forward and extending his hand towards Neji.

"Really?"

"Yes, Naruto's a friend, one that I lost sight of the other night. I want make sure he is alright, plus I have some things to talk about with him." The black haired man answered, swiping the folder from Neji's hand and began walking towards the door. "I'll be gone an hour, hour and a half tops."

* * *

"_Get her flowers, Naruto. Girls like flowers."_

'_I wish the old pervert was more specific than that…_' The blond scowled as he looked through the rows upon rows of vividly colourful plants. Which one was the correct one to get? How many should he get? What is he supposed to say with them?

"Hey I know you!" He turned at the sound of the loud voice, he saw a blond woman glaring at him. "You're that guy from Mangekyo! The jackass that made Hinata cry!"

"I… I made her cry…" He found himself at a loss for words, he figured he had hurt her, but never imagined it was to that much of an extent.

"Yeah! You're lucky Hinata's really sweet and she really likes you. If it were me I'd beat you to an inch of your life!" The blond shouted back angrily.

"Well that's why I'm here. I wanna make it up to her, I wanna show her that I'm not that big of a jackass as she might think." The blond man smiled back softly. "I'm guessing you probably don't like me very much, but will you help me… uh…?"

"Ino." The blonde woman responded with a scowl. "And you're gonna want Sunflowers. They are Hinata's favourite flower, plus Himawari-chan likes them as well."

"Thank you, I suppose I'll have to buy them all huh?" He grinned back in response.

"Oh yeah." The woman answered with a scoff. "And you're gonna want to throw some lavender roses in as well. She'll like the meaning behind them. And you'll want Hibiscus and Liliacs thrown in as well. This will be expensive mind, but Hinata is well worth the cost, wouldn't you agree?"

"Sure!" Naruto grinned back happily, however inside his mind was fretting over his wallet. '_This blond chick's gonna bleed me dry!'_

"Good. I'll get this set up for you, come back in an hour or so and I'll have them ready." She gave him a small smile.

"What am I supposed to do for an hour?" The blond asked back in response.

"I don't know. Do something you'd usually do. However, if you really want to show Hinata how sorry you are, go to the bakery down the street and get Cinnamon rolls. They are her favourite."

"Good idea, Ino!" He beamed back in appreciation, before heading towards the door.

"Also." He gulped when she back to speak again. "You want to get her that new Aburame perfume, Firefly."

"Why? Is that her favourite perfume?" Naruto asked, looking back over his shoulder towards the blond woman.

"Not really, she gets so many perfumes for free from them because she has known the owner's son since she was like five. But Hinata is very kind, if she doesn't like it she wouldn't have the heart to tell you, she'd keep it until a friend of her asks her if they can have it." She gave him a sly wink.

'_So I'm really just buying it for you…_' The blond man sighed heavily. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. Just imagine if her sweet, cute, innocent children saw her crying because of you." The blond pointed out, adding an extra serving of guilt onto Naruto's metaphorical ramen bowl of emotions. "It might do you well to get something for them as well."

"What should I get them?"

"I don't know, use some initiative man!" She barked back at him. "I can't decide everything you should do, now go!"

* * *

"Uh… Uh…" The blond haired girl continued to just stare at the dark haired man in front of the reception desk, a faint blush appearing on her face as he focused on her entirely.

"Naruto? Is he here?" He asked, by the tone of his voice sounded like it wasn't the first time he had asked her, she wasn't too sure.

"Ah, if it isn't Uchiha. Don't worry Lucy, I'll take it from here." He turned at the sound of the voice, seeing a man with black hair pulled back approaching him. "We didn't really meet properly last time. Shikamaru Nara."

Sasuke nodded back in return. "I'm looking for Naruto. I've got the initial drafts for your marketing plan."

"Well if you find him tell him to get his ass here." The other man responded dully. "I can take them from you, no doubt they would just wind up on my desk anyway."

"You mean he's not here?" Sasuke responded with a scowl.

"No, didn't turn up today. I first I thought he was either seriously hung over, or dead. But he's text me and told me he's got some personal stuff to take care of and will be able for a couple of weeks. Now please, the plans?" Shikamaru retorted, sticking out his hand towards him.

Sasuke tutted in annoyance, before handing the folder over to him. "You want me to give Naruto a message?" Shikamaru asked as he skimmed through the contents of the folder.

"Yeah, tell him he's useless." Sasuke turned, hearing the other black haired man chuckle behind him.

Shikamaru smirked at the man's back. "With pleasure."

* * *

Naruto knocked loudly on the door to Hinata's apartment, still panting heavily from having to climb the stupidly large amount of stairs. "I don't know what I hate more; Stairs, or the asshole who hasn't fixed that elevator yet." He wheezed out weakly.

Still there was no answer to his knock. He tried again, harder, but still no one appeared to greet him. "Please be home!" He banged on the door finally, before giving into the futility of the situation.

He sighed heavily, spinning on his heels and pounding his back into the wooden door. He dropped the bags in his hand to the floor and held the flowers up as he slid downwards, resting on the floor. "Guess I've got no choice but to wait."

* * *

"Karin." Sasuke looked around the reception to his office area, but finding it all but deserted save the blue haired woman sat on the desk opposite to Karin's, Neji's new assistant.

She saw him looking around and stood up from her desk. "Uchiha-san, apologies, but Karin has left on her lunch break. And Hyuuga-san has left for the day. Is-Is there anything I may help you with?"

Sasuke continued to stare at her for a moment, however it was long enough for her to begin fidgeting under his gaze. "You. You were out the other night, with Karin. You went to Mangekyo didn't you?"

"Y-Yes. That was me. I should thank you, Uchiha-san, for allowing us to get in." She smiled back at him softly.

Sasuke offered one curt nod. "Then perhaps there is something you can help me with." He spoke, before gesturing for her to follow him.

She did so obediently, following him to his office, where he closed the door behind them. "I need to ask you something about that night. I was going to ask Naruto, but he's gone out of town, then I figured Karin might know. But she's away too and I can't wait any longer."

"Naruto-san… H-He's left town…?" She asked back with a whisper.

He nodded back. "Yeah, something about personal reasons…" He answered back, causing her to look at the ground with what appeared to him to be sadness. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you about that night. You were with someone that nigh. The woman with the pink hair. Who is she?"

She looked back at him startled for a moment, before an almost knowing smile appeared across her face. "She is my friend, Uchiha-san. Apologies again, Uchiha-san, but she mentioned that you might ask about her, considering that I work under you, although she did not tell me why you would."

"And what did she say?" Sasuke replied, leaning back on his desk.

"S-She said to not tell you her name. That… That it was part of a game you two were playing." The girl responded.

"I see…" The dark haired man sighed back in response.

"H-However…" Her continued sentence grasped his attention once again. "She did not say I could not tell you where she would be. T-The hospital. She works there, directly under Dr Tsunade Senju."

He smiled back appreciatively. "Thanks." He turned and moved back to sit in his seat. "He looked back up towards her. "You said Neji had left for the day. You can go as well, Karin and I can handle things here."

She looked startled for a moment, before giving a short bow. "Thank you, Uchiha-san." She moved to the closed door. Sasuke heard the door open, and began to focus on the work he had left on his computer.

"Uchiha-san…" He looked back from his computer to the girl, who stood by the open door with a soft smile on her face. "Good luck."

* * *

"Hey… Hey…! Hey asshole, come on move!"

"W-What?" Naruto spoke quietly, his eyes fluttered open. In front of him were two small feet. He followed them up finding a small boy with thick blond hair grumbling towards him.

"You deaf, geezer!? Get out of the way of my front door-ttebasa!" The kid barked angrily.

"Bolt!" He heard a familiar voice call out. He looked up, seeing just the person he was waiting for.

"Hinata!" He quickly sprung up onto his feet.

"N-Naruto-san!" She looked at him in surprise. "W-What are you doing here? I had heard from Uchiha-san that you had left town for a couple of weeks?"

"I haven't left yet, I wanted to see you before I go." He beamed, offering towards her the brilliantly organised bouquet of sunflowers, highlighted with the lavender roses, Hibiscus and lilac flowers. "These are for you."

"O-Oh…" She blushed faintly, taking the flowers in her hands. "W-What are they for?"

"As a way to say sorry. These are for you as well, your friend Ino said you liked Cinnamon rolls."

"Y-yes I do." She smiled sweetly, taking the bag of cinnamon rolls as well.

"Wow…" He looked down, seeing a small girl with the same colour hair as Hinata. "They're so pretty." Her gaze was focused on the flowers in Hinata's hand.

Naruto chuckled slightly, before gently plucking one of the Sunflowers out of the bouquet before kneeling down to reach the small girl's height. "They are aren't they? You're Himawari right?"

The girl fidgeted on the spot, but nodded nonetheless. "Well you know these flowers?" He held up the single sunflower in his hand. "They might just be half as pretty as you." He beamed, holding out the sunflower to the small girl. "My name is Naruto, Himawari. It's nice to meet you."

"Ahh…" The girl blushed like her mother did, but her eyes focused mesmerised by the flower in front of her. She took it from him in her small hands and took a big sniff of the flower. "Thank you, Naruto-san."

He grinned at the small girl, before turning to the still angry looking boy. "And you must be Bolt. Do you want a flower as well?"

"Hell no!"

"Bolt!"

"It's alright, Hinata!" Naruto laughed loudly towards her, before looking back at the small boy. "So if you don't want a flower, I guess you'll just have to do with what's in here." He held up the last, and largest bag. He held it out towards the boy, who with an eyebrow peaked up in interest looked inside it.

His face turned to astonishment. "No way!" Quickly he snatched the bag of him and gazed even further inside the bag. "You got me a PS4!? You know, geezer, you're alright-ttebasa!"

"No I got you and your sister a PS4, there's some games and some films in there as well, I wasn't sure what you kids were into. So I got the kid friendliest stuff I could find, Disney, Dreamworks, the whole lot." He smiled towards the two of them again.

"Did you get the One Piece boxsets?" The boy looked up towards him again, Naruto shook his head in response, casing the boy to roll his eyes. "Boring! Well, next time you know what to get geezer! I'm gonna go inside and set this up, mom!" The boy shouted before moving towards the door.

"B-Bolt, where are your manners?" Hinata asked the small boy, but she was too late, he had already darted inside. She sighed deeply, before bending down to the small girl's height. "Himawari-chan, why don't you go inside with your brother?"

"Okay, mommy." The girl smiled, before she gave Naruto a smile as well. "It was very nice to meet you, Naruto-san."

He watched as she followed her brother inside their house, closing the door behind her. "They're cute." Naruto chuckled, turning back to face the blue haired woman, who stood smiling at the flowers in her hands.

She looked back up at him. "Naruto-san, these were all very unnecessary."

"Yes they are. I wanted to apologise for what happened at Mangekyo. I uh… I shouldn't have done that." He smiled weakly, scratching the back of his head.

Hinata smiled back as weakly as he did. "It is alright Naruto-san, I-I was just as much in the wrong over what had happened."

"Really? Because if I remember correctly, I was the only one who ran away." He caught her in the eyes, his smile was stronger and more confident, causing her to blush harder,

"B-B-But what about your girlfriend?" She asked back at him.

"We broke up."

"R-Really?" For a moment she almost sounded joyous at the news, before her face became wracked with guilt. "I-I do hope it was not because of me?"

"Nonononononono!" He quickly jutted out. "I told you things were rough between us, didn't I? Well, it just reached its end I suppose…"

"Oh…" She looked back down at the flowers, gently touching each of the different petals on each variety of flower.

"Anyways, I didn't come here to tell you that!" He grinned once again. "What I wanted to say, Hinata… What I wanted to tell you was… Well, I like you… I mean, I really like you-ttebayo. When I was with you in Mangekyo, even just talking to you, I felt… happy, y'know. Happier than I had been for really long time. And if something makes you happy, you got to grab it with both hands don't you?"

"Y-Yes…" She smiled back, her blush growing as she pulled a strand of her hair back behind her ear. "I-I also like you very much, Naruto-san. Since that moment at the supermarket, this feeling I have for you has been growing… Even…"

'_Should I tell him now…'_ She pondered to herself, it would be very simple. However, she feared his reaction at the present time. She could see by the way he smiled he wasn't himself at the moment. Perhaps it would be better to wait…?

"Even…?"

"Even now…" She continued, "Those feelings are growing stronger…"

"Well," He spoke, his hands rose to gently grasp her waist, "If you supposed to grasp the thing that makes you happy…" He smiled as he pulled her closer, before planting a small, soft kiss on her lips, one she happily reciprocated.

"So I'm going away for a couple of weeks, clear my head, y'know?" He smiled again as he broke the kiss. "I was a jackass to you the other night, Hinata and I am sorry. But if you are willing to give me a chance and wait two weeks. Would you go on a date, y'know, with me?"

She smiled again, before lift herself upwards on her feet to plant a kiss on his lips this time. They stayed like that for a minute, before she broke the kiss she began. Gazing deeply into his blue eyes as his eyes stared deeply back into hers, she let out a small, light giggle. "I would love to."

* * *

**A/N:**

Sunflowers meaning (apparently) - Adoration - Not really relevevant but I like to throw in some Canon References

Lavender Roses meaning (apparently) - Enchantment or love at first sight

Hibiscus meaning (apparently) - Delicate beauty

Lilac meaning (apparently) - First love

**THE END**

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**Of Act I**


	10. Chapter 10

"A girl with pink hair? Works under Dr Tsunade Senju? You know her?" The dark haired man asked the nurse sat behind a desk at the lobby of the hospital.

"Yes, of course I know her." The nurse responded cheerfully enough in return to his questions.

"And where is she now?" He asked bluntly.

The nurse gave of a hum, before flickering through the computer in front of her. "She should be… In the Mito Ward at this time, that's where Dr Senju stationed her today. I can't tell you exactly where, so you will have to do a bit of looking, just don't disturb any of the patients, okay!"

He nodded back at her before moving towards the elevator, sliding in a pressing the button to reach the Mito Ward.

Sasuke Uchiha was not usually what you would call a patient man. And this elevator had seemingly decided to go excruciatingly slow today.

The door ping and he burst out of the small lift, he headed straight to the double doors of the Mito ward and pressed through. On first sight of the corridor, he couldn't spot the pink hair. He continued walking downwards, peering through each room he passed searching.

And finally, he spotted her. Her back was turned, dressed in a pristine white nurse outfit with a short-ish enough skirt. Her pink hair tied back into a small knot. Without care he entered the room, a young girl, who looked particularly sickly shifted her head in her bed to stare at him. A small blush appeared on her face. "Please tell me he is here for me?"

The pink haired girl turned, and his onyx eyes captured her emerald green ones. She sighed slightly, shaking her head in annoyance. "No, sorry Hikari, he's here for me."

The girl in the bed, Hikari, laughed slightly. "Oh well, can't blame a girl for trying."

He nodded towards the sickly looking girl, before refocusing his attention on the pink haired girl. A victorious smirk appeared on his face. "Game over. I found you. Now I believe you owe me something…" He moved towards, before grasping her name tag softly in his hand, he looked at it for a moment, before looking back towards her face and smirked. "Sakura Haruno."

"Great, not that I'm not pleased you found me, but do you have to do this here? As you can see I'm a little busy working." The pinked haired woman, finally revealed to him as Sakura spoke with a heavy tut.

"Oh, don't mind me!" Hikari spoke rather cheerfully. "I'm pretty comfortable, Sakura. No pain or anything."

Sakura smiled at the girl before turning back to the dark haired man. "Make this quick, Sasuke."

"Dinner." He responded bluntly. "Tonight. You and me. If you say no, well I guess I'll just give you back the gift you left me now and be on my way."

The pink haired girl blushed furiously, knowing exactly what gift he was talking about. "Dinner it is. I finish at eight, you can pick me up at nine thirty." She spoke quickly, quickly scribbling down an address on a scrap piece of paper before handing it to him. "Now go before you get me in trouble."

He smiled again briefly, before pocketing the piece of paper. "See you at nine thirty then." He offered a small wave before taking his leave.

She watched him leave with a happy smile on her face. "Wow, Sakura. How the hell did you manage to pull off getting a guy like him interested in you?" Hikari asked curiously. "If I ever get out of this bed I'm gonna find one of them for my own."

Sakura giggled lightly, before turning back to face the girl. "Save your energy, Hikari. You've got plenty of time to sort out stuff like that. For now, focus on healing shannaro!"

_**Two Weeks Later**_

Naruto knocked gently on the front door to Hinata's apartment, tapping his foot gently as he waited. His smile grew when the front door began to open, revealing the small blond haired Bolt behind it.

"Well if it isn't the geezer. Haven't seen you in a while." His brow rose as he looked up towards the blonde man's face.

Naruto grinned back in response. "Yo kid, is your mom here?"

"Bolt, is that Naruto? Let him wait inside please." He heard Hinata call from further inside the apartment.

"That answer your question?" The blond boy turned back to face Naruto after turning his head to listen to his mother. He shifted, allowing the door to open further and give an access way to the blond man. "Come on in then, geezer."

Naruto nodded, and followed the boy into the apartment. He looked around, seeing the boy go back to the couch and pick up the controller for the console he bought him. "Ah, I see you're enjoying that?"

The boy shrugged his shoulders, returning to the soccer game he had paused. "It's alright I suppose. Could do with some new games-ttebasa. Mom's got money now, but she says she's saving it and she doesn't want us to become spoiled or something…"

"I see…" Naruto nodded in response, before sitting down next to the kid, watching him play the game. The boy had the ball for a few moments, before the AI took it straight off him and powered back towards his own goal, with mere moments the ball was in the back of the boy's net, 0-5 was now the score. "You're really bad at this aren't you?" Naruto chuckled quietly to himself.

"Shut it! You distracted me-ttebasa!" The boy bit back angrily and loudly. "I could cream you at this any day of the week!"

"Time and place kid, time and place." Naruto laughed back. "In fact…" He snatched the controller of the boy, ignoring his shouts of protests. He took it back to the home screen before moving to friends, then add friends. He jotted in a quick name before handing the controller back to him.

"'Naruto! Dattebayo!' What kinda name is that?" The boy quipped, looking up to the older blond.

"I saw your name as well, y'know. 'Bolt! Dattebasa!' What's that about?" Naruto quipped back in reply.

They both began to laugh loudly at each other, before the quietened as the boy continued his game. "So, geezer. Now that we have the chit chat out the way, what are your intestines with my mom?" The boy asked, while focusing on the game at hand.

"What?"

"You know, what do you plan to do with my mom?" The boy asked again.

"Oh you mean_ intentions!_" Naruto's mind clicked into place at what the boy was asking.

"Don't act like a smartypants, geezer!" The boy yelled again, before grunting in annoyance as another goal went in against him.

"Well I guess I'm just gonna take your mom to dinner. You know, a fancy place and what not." Naruto replied honestly.

The boy nodded back slowly. "Bring me back some food, yeah? Aunt Hanabi's cool, but she can't cook worth crap."

"Naruto-san." He looked up, seeing a small blue haired girl approaching smiling at him.

Naruto chuckled, ruffling the boy's thick blond hair again. "Sure thing kid." He stood up and moved in front of the TV and past it, ignoring the blond haired boy's rants about him distracting him again. He moved towards the blue haired girl and smiled towards her. "Hey, Himawari. How have you been?"

"I have been very good thank you, Naruto-san. Mommy said she will be out soon." The girl smiled happily at him. "I… I have been taking very good care of the Sunflower you gave me Naruto-san."

"Really? Well that's good to hear, Himawari!" He beamed back in return, causing the little girls smile to brighten as well.

"I… I can show you it if you like?" She asked looking up towards the blond man. He nodded and she smiled. He followed her to her room, it was bright, filled with girly colours. And on the windowsill in a small vase was the Sunflower, positioned closer on the windowsill where the head of her bed rested.

"That's great, Himawari, it's a good spot to keep it in." Naruto smiled towards the girl, who giggled before moving towards her bed, picking up a picture book and began to flick through the pages.

"Naruto-kun." He turned, and his jaw dropped. Hinata had decided on a simple, yet elegant black dressed. Her hair had been pulled back into a pony tail, leaving bags on the side and over her forehead to frame her face.

"Wow Hinata, won't I look like a pile of crap next to you." He spoke with astonishment as he approached her, causing the woman to blush. He was so captivated, that he didn't even see the brown haired young woman standing next to Hinata.

"Alright listen guy. I don't care how much my older sister likes you, or how much of a good time you having or you're planning to have, I want Hinata home by eleven at the latest, got it!? One second later, and I'm gonna have to call the big guns down here!" The brown haired woman spoke, holding up her cell phone towards the blond, showing him a contact caller ID. 'Dad', it read, and he assumed that was who she meant by the big guns.

"Yes ma'am!"

_**A Few Days Earlier**_

"It's only been a couple of weeks since we started dating, and already I can't get you out of my house." Sasuke spoke as he walked towards his couch, where Sakura sat curled up.

He bent over the back of the sofa handing her the ice cream and a spoon. "Sorry. I just needed some company tonight. And Hinata has a date and Ino's gone off somewhere with her boyfriend… I just… I didn't know where else to go…" She spoke as she wolfed down a large spoonful of ice cream.

He sat down next to her, staring at her saddened emerald eyes. "So what's the matter?"

She ate another spoonful of ice cream. "Work. You remember that girl whose room you waltzed into. Hikari?"

"What about her?"

"She's getting worse…" She responded slowly and sadly, looking down at the ice cream tub in her lap.

"I thought you said she was getting better?" Sasuke responded, continuing to watch the pink haired woman.

"She was…" She looked back towards his own onyx eyes. "For what her budget would allow, and even then the best we could have hoped for would have been her spending the rest of her life in a wheelchair. If she ever wants to be the person she was before she entered the hospital, she'll need that operation, but it's far too expensive for her…"

"You… really care for her, don't you?"

Sakura nodded in return. "Yes. At first she was just another patient. But then, like all the others, I began speaking to her. I found out her hopes, her dreams for the future. She became my friend… and…" She sniffled slightly, and a tear trickled down her cheek. "I don't want to see my friend in pain… or worse…"

_**Present**_

"Wow, Naruto-kun, I heard about this place. I-I heard it was very hard to get a reservation here…" Hinata looked around the restaurant in astonishment and admiration, she had never been in such a beautifully designed building before.

"Yeah it was. Sasuke said he went here a couple of weeks ago on and it was good. Obviously, Sasuke didn't have to get a reservation seeing as his brother knows the Head Chef or someone important like that. But I had to book a table like the minute after I finished the phone call with Sasuke the day I got to my parent's house!" He laughed as they waited for their food to arrive. "So Hinata, when I was away I realised that I don't know that much about you. Are you from Konoha originally?"

"Yes. I was born and raised in Konoha." She responded with a smile.

"Really? I don't remember seeing you around, what school did you go to?" He asked curiously, sipping on the water he had ordered for himself.

"Hagaromo's School of Excellence, although I didn't really enjoy my time there." She responded honestly, she knew of the reputation the school had. A prep school filled with snobby socialites.

Naruto bellowed out with laughter. "No way! I'm on a date with a Kekkei Genkai!?" He continued laughing, but stopped when he notice the confused look she was giving him. "Sorry. I uh… I went to Konoha High, y'know the public school? Anyways, Kekkei Genkai is what all us public kids called the kids who went to Hagaromo's school. Kekkei Genkai, Bloodline Limits. Because all the kids that went there only went there because of who they were or what family they were born into. Sorry, Hinata, I didn't mean for-"

"I-It is okay, Naruto-kun. To be quite honest it is a rather clever nickname." She smiled back sweetly.

"Yeah, I shouldn't really use it though. Considering I could have been a Kekkei Genkai if I chose to go to Hagaromo's." He replied honestly, scratching the back of his head.

"You could have gone there?"

"Yeah I was given the option…" He replied to her question. "But I decided to stay in public education with my friends. I did know someone who went there, Kiba Inuzuka, he ditched us to go there, and I haven't really seen him since."

"Kiba-kun?" Hinata pondered back, looking in surprise at the blond man in front of her.

"Yeah, you know him well or something?"

Hinata nodded back in confirmation. "Y-Yes, he and I were friends in school. We would talk with our other friend Shino Aburame… Kiba-kun would always talk about an old group of friends of his and the trouble they would get into together… He… He really missed those friends of his, Naruto-kun."

"Well it's not like we were far away or anything…" Naruto grumbled back, before looking into her pristine white eyes. "So… Your sister, she uh… well she's nothing like you, Hinata."

Hinata giggled back sweetly. "Yes, she's very headstrong and confident, she's currently at university right now, so I do not see her very often. But she has become accustomed to studying at my house. She… She says it is more peaceful… more relaxing and so a better environment to study in."

"Really? Is it super strict at home or something?" Naruto wondered, before his mind clicked and he broke out into a childish grin. "I guess why'll we are on the subject of family. I should ask about the big gun, your dad? He's not gonna threaten my life or anything like that is he?"

"I have not seen my father for seven years, Naruto-kun." She responded, and he could see the sadness growing in her eyes. "My father is quite old fashioned, and when I became pregnant, I left home. I… I-I did not want to bring him any further shame…"

"Hinata…"

"What about your family, Naruto-kun?" She quickly tried to change the subject.

"Uh… well you've already met Karin. As for my folks? Dad's pretty laid back, he was one of those stay at home dads, y'know. And I guess you could say his catchphrase was 'listen to your motormouth mother'." He grinned rightly, before a fearful look appeared on his face. "As for mom, sometimes she forgets that I'm twenty-five-ttebayo. Not like it matters, she'll kick my ass if I get her angry no matter how old I get. She's got this wild temper, I hadn't seen or spoke to her for almost a year and when I went home a couple of weeks ago she threw a frying pan at me."

Hinata giggled happily watching him shudder in fear of his mother. "Dinner! Is served!" A man appeared, dressed in a standard chef's outfit with an extremely large hat on his head, managing to cover most of his silver hair. His purple eyes shone with happiness as he placed their dinner plates in front of them.

"Thanks!" Naruto grinned, looking at his food, picking up his knife and fork and digging into the meat in front of him. He chomped on it quickly, before he began to hear a dark, slowly growing cackle next to him.

He turned and saw the chef who had delivered their food laughing almost maniacally, with a deranged, ecstasy filled look on his face, his eyes had become bloodshot as he looked upwards, and Naruto could swear he even saw the man drooling a little bit. "How is it? How is the meal my employees prepared for you? Is it not the most splendid thing you've ever tasted!? Does it not taste like something akin to a gift from God! Hahahahahahahaha!"

"It's a bit dry."

"What?"

"The meat." Naruto answered, seeing how the man's once deranged face turned to one of seething anger boiling just under the surface. "It's a bit dry-ttebayo."

The purple haired man exhaled furiously, swiping the meat from Naruto's plate before taking a large bite of it. As soon as it touched his lips his face turned to deep disgust. "Who made this?"

He turned back towards the kitchen, still exhaling furiously. "WHO THE FUCK MADE THIS!?"

The restaurant went silent, all staring towards the kitchen as a lowly chef came out slowly, sweat dripping from his face as he wrung his hat in between his hands. "I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I did, Master H-H-H-H-Hidan, sir…"

"Dry meat." The seething head chef spoke loud enough for the almost crying chef to hear. "You fed on of my customers dry meat. An imperfect meal in MY humble temple? DRY FUCKING MEAT!?"

"I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I'm sorry, Master Hidan! I suppose I left it on just a tad too long…?"

"OH YOU SUPPOSE!? YOU FUCKING SUPPOSE YOU FUCKING IDIOT!?" The head chef erupted again, picking up Naruto's plate and hurling it towards the crying chef, who ducked down with the rest of the customers in the restaurant. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS!? IT MEANS YOU HAVE GIVEN A POOR OFFERING TO GOD! HERE AT JASHIN'S MY CUSTOMERS DEMAND A GIFT FROM GOD! TO TASTE WHAT THE HEAVENS WOULD TASTE LIKE! THIS IS THE BIGGEST CLUSTERFUCK I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED!"

"P-P-P-P-P-P-P-Please Master Hidan, I'm sorry-"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH YOU FUCKING MORON! YOU'RE FIRED! IN FACT YOU'RE MORE THAN FIRED! I'LL PRAY EVERY DAY TO GOD THAT EVERY DAY FROM NOW ON WHEN YOU TRY TO COOK A MEAL YOU'LL BURN YOUR FINGERS! THEN YOU'LL KNOW THE EXQUISITE PAIN YOU SHOULD BE PUTTING INTO PREPARING EVERY MEAL! NOW GET OUT OF MY TEMPLE YOU INFIDEL!"

The man ran towards the exit it tears, crying profusely and offering apologies to the still steaming head chef. Once the man had disappeared from his sight the head chef turned back towards back towards Naruto and Hinata, taking Hinata's plate from her as well. "I'm sorry, I'll prepare you a new meal for the both of you myself!" He spoke, before his face turned to that deranged, psychotic look he had previously, bloodshot eyes and all. "And this time you'll truly taste a gift from God."

He quickly hurried away to the kitchen, and slowly conversations began to resume in the restaurant. Naruto turned slowly to Hinata, seeing her as wide eyed in shock as he was. "Wow… That guy is insane…"

* * *

Sakura walked through the Mito ward on her rounds, heading towards the next stop in her shift. She stopped in horror as she saw more doctor's than necessary surrounding the very room she was heading to. "Oh no… Hikari!" She ran quickly, passing through the crowd and bursting into the room. "What's happened!?"

"Hey, Sakura." The girl waved from her hospital bed. "Don't look so worried. They're just prepping me for surgery."

"Really?" Her eyes changed to fill with surprise. "But how?"

"Don't ask me. One minute I'm just sat in here minding my own business, next minute Doctors are bursting in telling me to get ready for surgery." The girl shrugged, before her hospital bed began to get moved towards an Operating room. "Well, it's been fun Sakura. See you on the other side. Maybe we can actually see each other outside this tiny room yeah?"

"Yeah… sure…" She smiled softly as she watched the girl roll down the corridor. This all felt like some sort of miracle, not days ago she was talking about it with Sasuke and now, Hikari was getting the surgery that could allow her to return to who she was.

Suddenly her mind clicked, and she smiled even stronger. She leaned against the wall, taking out her phone and quickly texted away on it.

_Thank you, Sasuke xx_

__Sasuke-x: _For what?_

_You paid for Hikari's surgery, didn't you? xx_

_Didn't you? Xx_

__Sasuke-x: _Did it make you happy?_

_You have no idea :) xxx_

_ Sasuke-x: Then I'm happy._

__Sasuke-x: _X_

* * *

"Well besides everything, it was a really nice place. The food was amazing!" Naruto grinned as he stood with Hinata outside her door. "Oh yeah, give this to Bolt for me. He asked me to bring him back some food."

"I will." She smiled back in return, taking the bag of food from him.

"So…" Naruto hummed out slowly. "This is the part where I ask if I can see you again?"

A small blush accompanied the smile on her face as she approached him, giving him a small kiss on his lips. "You do not need to ask that, Naruto-kun."

A blush grew on his own face as he burst out into a wide grin. "Great, so I guess I'll be seeing you around, Hinata!"


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** AHOY! Just want to say before we start, some reviews, I forget who and asked if all the Akatsuki members would be appearing in this after the appearance of Hidan Ramsey. And well I thought about just having a few members in some Cameo roles.

If I stick to the fluffliness of this fick, I can have this done by chapter 20. However I had another, darker subplot in my cards, which I'm not sure whether or not to play, because if I did play it, this could go to like 50 chapters.

So what do you think, keep it short and fluffy, or add a bit of a dark subplot and stretch it out?

* * *

_**August 23**__**rd**_

"Come on, Himawari! Just keep kicking towards me!" She watch from the side as her blue haired daughter kicked and squirmed in the clear water as she pushed herself slowly towards the blond man standing easily in the shallowest part of the pool.

She smiled happily as Himawari finally reached close enough for Naruto to pull her the rest of the way towards him gently, hold her small coughing head out of the water.

They were at the start of the school summer holidays when Naruto had discovered that Bolt and Himawari could not swim. And he insisted to help them learn how to do so, as he had grown up on an island, he pretty much learned how to swim before he could walk.

Plus, it helped that he owned an Olympic sized swimming pool as well as smaller pools where they could begin learning and they would have all access to for free.

Bolt took to it naturally, and within a few weeks was swimming up and down the large pool with ease. It was just one of his things, he was loud, brash and confident, and although he didn't take to studying quickly, he was a prodigy when it came to physical activity.

Himawari on the other hand took a bit longer, now ready to tackle the larger swimming pool without arm bands, still needed help grasping the concept of keeping her head above the water by herself, as well as strengthening her kicks and strokes so she could actually move easily in the water.

"Great job, Himawari! Soon you'll be making dolphins jealous at how well you swim-ttebayo!" Naruto beamed to the small girl, who although panting heavily, smiled back softly in return.

"Thank you for all your help, Naruto-san." She spoke back happily.

"You ready to try again?" He waited for Himawari to nod. "Great, swim back to your mom now." He said, turning the girl around and holding her steady before giving her a small push to get her going. He watched carefully as Himawari paddled away towards Hinata, who sat at the side of the pool, her feet dangling in the water.

"SNEAK ATTACK!" He heard being shouted behind him, he turned to see Bolt in the air above him, his arms high up ready to push Naruto under the water.

Naruto caught the boy's arms however, stopping his attempted move. "It's not a sneak attack if you scream it out before you do it, Bolt-ttebayo!" Naruto laughed, quickly moving to grab the boy from under his armpits before lifted him high and backwards, creating a huge splash when the boy went under water.

The boy's head sprung back out, whipping his blond hair rapidly to get it out his face. "It's not fair though geezer! You're bigger and stronger than me, I have to rely on sneak attacks-ttebasa!"

"You want to get bigger and stronger?" Naruto asked, and the boy nodded furiously. "Well then swim up and down the length of this pool ten times, you won't realise straight away, but you'll be stronger at the end of it."

The boy nodded before speeding away towards the deeper end of the pool. "Naruto-san!" He was laughing when he turned to see Himawari about a metre away from him. "Oh, back already eh?"

"Yes!" She smiled as she got close enough for him to grab her once again.

"What do you say then, feeling confident enough for a deeper part of the pool?" He asked the blue haired girl, who nodded back affirmatively. "Let's go then!" He beamed, holding her up as he walked along the floor of the pool, pulling the small girl with him.

Hinata giggled happily at the sight. Hearing Himawari shout to the blond man, she had never heard her speak so loudly before, she could already see some new found confidence radiating from her.

"You're lucky." She turned her head, seeing a random woman stood behind her, as if she was watching the three of them as well. "He's really good with them. I wish the father of my child was half as good with his kid as the father of yours are with his."

"H-He's not…" She cut herself off, before looking over to see the blond man laughing loudly, watching her daughter and son swim around him, both with beaming smiles of their own.

What that man, Shikamaru said, at first she didn't really believe him despite her own assumptions. But seeing the three of them together, what he said began to create more and more truth. It was almost like an instant, subconscious connection with the three of them. The way Naruto and Bolt spoke like one another, the way he seemed to pull Himawari out of a slump with ease. She had spent years trying to help Himawari build some confidence, yet Naruto seemed to have accomplish more in a few weeks than in all her years of attempts.

She was probably making it worse for herself, knowing the possibility he might actually be their father, and not having the courage to at least run the idea by him. And the longer she was holding it off, the deeper the hole she was digging grew. She didn't want to scare him off by throwing the idea at him and hoping he would remember that night all those years ago, because he was quite clearly oblivious to the memory. But she knew, when he did find out, he would probably be angry, or upset, or filled with hate for her, or all of the above.

She knew she had to tell him soon. And the perfect opportunity would arise soon and that would when she would lay everything on the line, and hope that Naruto was as perfect as he made himself appear in her eyes.

But for now she smiled at the seen in front of her. "Yes… He is…"

* * *

"So kid, you're not a bad swimmer eh?" Naruto spoke whilst leaning against the sink, waiting for Bolt to emerge from his changing room.

"You're not bad yourself geezer! Do you teach swimming here or something?" He heard Bolt's loud voice call back from behind the locked door.

"Nah. I own this place, kid. Usually when I get bored of my stuffy office I go and help out in different areas in the building. I've been helping with the kids soccer teams recently because it's got more popular after the World Cup. You know soccer right? That game you're really bad at playing on the PS4?" Naruto grinned back childishly at hearing the boy's yell of frustration.

"Hey! Get me a real ball and I'll show you just how awesome I am at that game in real life-ttebasa!"

"Really?" Naruto egged him on. "Well the next practice session is on Thursday at six thirty. Come down if you think you're brave enough!"

"Oh I'll be there!" The boy emerged from his changing room, his backpack filled with his towel and swimming trunks in his hand, he threw it lazily towards Naruto, who caught it with a puzzled look. "Now let's go geezer. I got to get ready for Shikadai's mom's birthday party."

"Shikadai?" Naruto asked, leading the boy out of the changing rooms and towards the exit to where they were to meet Hinata and Himawari.

"Yeah. It's his mom's birthday and he said they are having some boring dinner and he invited me so he'll have someone to talk to!" The boy grinned while looking up towards the blond man.

"Cool! Looks like I'll be seeing you there!" He could help but grin when the boy's eyes widened with a sense of horror. "Me and Shikadai's dad as well as me and his mom's brother go way back-ttebayo, so I got an invite as well. Shikamaru even let me invite Hinata and Himawari."

"Aww man!" The boy groaned, grasping his head in his hands. "You guys are gonna cramp my style though!"

"Can't cramp something that isn't there." Naruto laughed loudly as he held the door open for Bolt. "Now let's go. Your mom's waiting."

* * *

"You!?"

"You!?"

"What are you doing here!?"

"Better question. What are _you_ doing here!?"

"I work with Shikamaru! I've known him since we were kids, of course I'd be here!"

"I've known him since birth!"

"Forget Naruto and Bolt. Are you sure those two aren't related?" Temari whispered quietly to the black haired man as she watched the two blondes arguing away. They had begun as soon as they clocked each other upon Naruto, Hinata, Bolt and Himawari entering the restaurant.

"Absolutely. Blonde hair and blue eyes aside, they're just loud, obnoxious idiots." Shikamaru responded dryly, similarly watching the two adults go at it. "Naruto, Ino. Sit down and be quiet." He barked out, causing the two blondes to silence themselves.

The two blondes gave each other another grumpy look before Naruto moved to sit with Gaara and Kankuro. Ino smiled towards Hinata and the two children, giving the blue haired woman a quick hug. "Come on, Hinata let's sit down." She pulled the woman towards the large table in the restaurant. Retaking her seat next to her pale skinned boyfriend Sai, with Hinata sat on the other side.

Bolt went and sat next to Shikadai, and Himawari claimed the last seat next to Bolt. Quite a few people had turned up for Temari's birthday dinner despite the blond man, Hinata and her two children. Ino and Sai were together, although Sai sat with his face down towards a sketchbook almost doodling away in silence. Temari's brothers, Gaara and Kankuro were deep in conversation with Naruto whilst Shikamaru spoke in a hushed whisper in Temari's ear. Even Shikamaru's parents were there, in a conversation with Shikamaru's oldest friend Choji.

"So guys, how's things been going in Suna?" Naruto asked eagerly to the two brothers.

"Naruto, it's only been a couple of weeks since we finally got the construction permits from the city. We're still bringing in materials and equipment." Gaara responded bluntly.

"Yeah, but what about the whole cultural activities you wanted to put in to it. Kankuro, you have any ideas?" Naruto specifically asked the brown haired member of the Suna siblings.

"Got some. Puppetry always been a soft spot in Suna ever since Sasori rose to prominence. So me and Gaara have been bouncing ideas around to include that. Puppet making, puppet theatre stuff like that. We're thinking of have cacti cultivation for stress management, but that as well as many of our ideas are still in early stages. We've got surveys floating around all over the city. We can't plan anything until they get back, man." Kankuro finished with a shrug.

Naruto nodded in understanding. He figured as much about the puppetry. Sasori was the biggest thing to come out of Suna since ever! He and his Red Sand troupe had performed their life-sized puppet theatre all over the world. Sasori and his assistants built their own puppets from scratch, and Sasori himself wrote the screen plays himself. In fact the blond was sure the last film he saw was based on one of Sasori's plays.

"All that can wait though, Naruto. We've still got tons of planning to do." Gaara added on. "Hopefully construction can begin before the end of September, but we've still got to deal with how we're going to fill up all the pools that are going to be in the facility. Suna isn't exactly known for its heavy rainfall."

"Tell me about it, last time I went to Suna I think I lost ten pounds of water weight." Naruto groaned loudly. Despite its surfacing gold mines providing a massive boost to it's economy, Kaze no Kuni was still basically an arid desert.

"Yeah, and you went when it was mild." Kankuro snorted loudly, taking a sip of his beer in front of him.

"I've got a contact in Mizu whom I am corresponding with. I'm hoping to set up a way to import the water from there instead of having to use the local supplies and drain their resources. Even see if they can set up a way for us to store large amounts on site without it evaporating. If that falls through, I'm looking up any options available in Ame." Gaara continued on from his earlier statement.

"Sounds good. I've never really been to Ame before, but Jiraiya said if there's one thing promised in a stay in Ame, its rain." Naruto nodded in agreement. Ame no Kuni was a small country, and its capital city Ame wasn't even half the size of Konoha. But its near yearlong rainy seasons did provide it with an absurdly large supply of natural water reserves, and the country had more reservoirs that some of the countries three times its size. Konoha had its long history of stability and success, Suna had its Gold, and Ame had its water.

"Hey!" They were interrupted by Temari, glaring at three angrily. "Enough talk about work. This isn't a conference meeting, it's your big sister's birthday party."

"Sorry." The three men mumbled in unison. Temari continued to glare at them for a moment, before turning back to continue speaking to Shikamaru's parents.

"Hey." Naruto turned to see Bolt smirking at him snidely. "That was lame geezer."

"Trust me kid. There's only one thing you really learn as you get older." Naruto leaned in closer to whisper in his ear. "Girls are scary."

"Pffft." Bolt snorted back. "Mom's not scary, Himawari's not scary, Aunt Hanabi isn't scary. You're talking crazy!"

"Just wait till you're about fifteen and do something really, _really_ stupid." Naruto grinned back cheekily. "That'll be the day I tell you I told you so."

"Like you'll be around that long." Bolt huffed back. "Whatever it is going on with you and my mom. I give it another month, two tops."

"Losersayswhat?"

"What?"

"Exactly." Naruto grinned towards the boy, who after realising the cheap trick, punched him in the arm before moving seats, swapping with Himawari.

Naruto and Himawari began chatting away, laughing and giggling away to each other. "She looks like him as well." Ino spoke softly to the blue haired woman, both staring at the blonde man and the blue haired girl from across the table. "Well she has his eyes anyway."

The blue haired woman remained silent, still watching how Himawari smiled happily and laughed to whatever the blond man said.

"So Hinata…" Ino turned to the woman, giving her a wry smile. "It's the first time I've seen you with a boy since… well since you told me about that night of yours seven years ago. That's a _really_ long time… How was it?"

"H-How was what?"

"You know… _It_." The blond woman wiggled her thin eyebrows suggestively, the wry smile on her face growing more and more prominent.

"I-Ino!" Hinata nearly squealed as she understood what the blond woman was asking.

"No way…" Ino's face turned to surprise. "You guys… haven't…?"

"No…" She responded quietly. "We… We h-haven't really had the chance. With Bolt and Himawari-chan around, it's hard to do those kind of things. Naruto-kun hasn't even stayed over for the night yet. He said he wanted Bolt and Himawari to trust him before he stayed over…"

"Hello." Before they could continue their conversation, Shikamaru stood up from his seat raising his glass. "Well all of you here know me, so you know I'm not good with speeches and stuff like that. So I'll keep it short and sweet. All of you are here because we're celebrating Temari's birthday. Temari, this birthday is just another milestone in what has been a long road together, one that I hope is still longer ahead."

* * *

"Where we off to Shikamaru?" Naruto stood next to the dark haired man, leading the troop of people through the town in the dimming light of the sun.

"It's a surprise." Shikamaru replied through a puff of smoke.

"Oh! Got a surprise party for Temari?" Naruto grinned cheekily, playfully jabbing the man in the arm with his elbow.

"Not really. She actually knows about this." He replied, before dropping the butt of the cigarette on the floor and stamping on it. "We're here."

He looked up at the building, and waited for Temari to approach. They smiled at each other before entering, with the entire group behind them.

There wasn't much in the reception, just a desk with a secretary sat behind and a few chairs for people waiting. They followed Shikamaru and Temari as they approached the lone secretary. "Hi. In sight of all these people here, we'd like to get married."

"WHAT!?" They turned at Naruto's sharp scream, he was apparently voicing the opinion of everyone present, as they all stared wide eyed and slack jawed.

"It's exactly what I said. We're going to get married now." The black haired man sighed back heavily.

"B-B-But what about the wedding day! The bachelor, bachelorette parties!" Naruto argued in response. "What about a best man!?"

"We don't need any of that." Temari responded, giving the blonde an angry stare. "The whole wedding day is just a show, and a waste of money. This is the part of a wedding that matters. I don't need to be stood around for hours to show something I've already proven. Shikamaru is the man I love and am going to spend the rest of my life with. Use that as an 'I do', Naruto and shut up."

"Besides, wife is less troublesome to say than 'Girl I've been with eleven years and have a kid with." Shikamaru added, gaining a chuckle from his father, who in turn gained a clip round the ear from his mother.

"But I'll never be a best man now!" Naruto almost cried out. "You're gonna be Choji's for sure!"

"There's always Sasuke?" Shikamaru responded dully.

"I find it unlikely for Sasuke to take a wife!" Naruto barked back.

"Naruto. This is our choice. I told you once we don't need a big day to prove something we've known for years." Shikamaru retorted back.

"Well Shikamaru, I like it!" Choji spoke happily. "Congratulations!"

"Yeah! Congratulations Shika!" Ino beamed. "Although I am annoyed you got married before I did…" She added to herself in a low grumble, her eyes darting over to her chestnut haired boyfriend. He spotted her and gave her a weird look back.

"Although I kind of agree with Naruto, you should have the wedding itself. I know what you're like, and at least I got to see you get married." His mother spoke back with a small smile.

"Just make sure you know what you getting in to…"

"What was that, Shikaku!?"

"Temari, mom would be happy." Kankuro spoke only a few words, but the empowered the smile that her heart created tremendously.

Gaara merely nodded, giving a small, agreeing smile. He had no words like Kankuro had. He never met their mother, and their father… he left a rather distasteful impression on them.

"Well congratulations Shikamaru-ttebayo!" Naruto beamed. "You've cheated me out of a best man position. But I know you and Temari are great together! And you'll be great together for the rest of your lives!"

Shikamaru turned away from them and filled out the paper in front of him. "Here you are, now you'll just sign this certificate!" The secretary beamed, sliding them the piece of paper closer. They took turns in signing the document. "Congratulations, you are now registered as husband and wife."


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** Yo! Just having a gander on my account and I realised this is my third highest reviewed story. That's quite impressive. If I'm honest I always figured A Kindred Spirit and Don't Wake Me Up were my piece d'resistance, my 9th symphonies, my Davids, my Big Macs so to speak, but this... this is getting somewhere. Finally I can do this:

***In movie trailer man deep voice*** In a world filled with 800 word chapters and poor plotlines. Where the thought out and well written are lost to the pages of an overly popular pairing filter. Where spelling mistakes appear even in the title. One authour dares to break the mold, to free the hopeful from prolonged hiatuses (hiati?) and inconsistent updates, to bring life back into a pairing that truthfully, when you've written a story about them, you come to realise that the two characters don't really mesh that well together.

Their name... is Not-So-GentleFist.

I should make that into one of those chain things people like to put on their profiles, if you guys wanna start that go fit it. But seriously, if you guys haven't read **Take a Hint** by Not-So-GentleFist yet you should. Puts NaruHina in a whole new perpective and it's fricken hilarious.

That being said. I've changed the currency in this story from Yen to Ryo, so it ties to the Naruniverse better, and I've changed the exchange rate so 1 US Dollar - 1 Ryo if you live in USA, 1 Pound - 1 Ryo if you live in UK, basically whatever your currency is, the Ryo is equal to it for this story's purposes.

This was going to be a longer chapter, but I've decided to split in in half as I like where it cuts off. I've had it written up since the last post, I was just milking reviews.

The Sasuke bit in this was the dark sub-plot I was talking about in the last A/N, I've read your reviews and I will not be following it any further, I was just too lazy to change all the work I put into this. So after the next couple of chapters, consider all that Sub-plot stuff resolved.

And finally, to all you out there with twisted undies and bunched panties, Naruto is going to find out their his kids soon, that's kinda what this whole story is about. I'm building up to something people! It's all about the ambiance!

* * *

"Karin." Sasuke's upper body appeared through the partially open door of his office, alerting the red haired woman sat at her desk, who turning in her chair to face him. "Do I have any meetings today?"

"Uh… Yes…" She turned back to face her computer, he could see her loading up the schedule on her desktop. "You have a meeting with Sound Four at two and Kina and Reishi from the Kodon clinics at four."

"Cancel them." He replied bluntly to give her a small startle. "Rearrange them. Do whatever it is you have to do, but I can't see them today."

"O-Okay… M-May I ask why-?" She didn't finish her question before Sasuke closed his office door again, he turned and leaned back against it, feeling the tinted glass against his upper back.

Sighing he looked down towards his phone, flicking through his contacts before picking a certain name. He dialled it and stared at the call screen momentarily before bringing it up to his ear.

"_Sasuke-kun? This is a surprise, you never call when you're at work. I'm kind of busy myself at the moment. What's up? You want to meet up for lunch or something?"_

"Sakura." He responded, stopping her before she fully commenced her chatty ramblings. "I'm sorry, I know we've got a date tonight, but I'm going to have to get a rain check. Something's come up, something I can't get out of. I don't know how long it will take either."

"_Oh… Okay sure…"_

"I'm sorry…" He repeated, his eyes moved to look out over the city through his office window.

"_No, it's okay really. I figured you would have to cancel a few dates. I'm busy at my work, but you must have it even more badly, running your own company and all. It's just something I'll have to get used to."_

"I don't want it to be something you have to get used to. I don't want you to get used to me bailing on you." He replied, a small smile appeared on his face when he heard her giggle through his phone.

"_It's fine. It just means I expect you to put more effort into our rain check dates!"_

He chuckled quietly. "Deal." He replied. "How about Saturday? Name something and we'll do it."

"_Hmm… How about… a day long date!"_ He could hear the excitement in her voice. _"There's an oriental food market across town. I want to go there and pick up lunch and dinner, we have a picnic in the park then we go back to your place for dinner. __Then__ we do all the things I want to do."_

The black haired man laughed again. "Sure, whatever you want. See you Saturday." She said her goodbyes and they hung up.

His head smacked against the door, shifting to look properly at the window for a moment. He continued staring out over the horizon, before he returned to his phone, resuming the call he placed on hold minutes ago. "Congratulations. You now have my undivided attention."

He pushed himself off the door and walked towards the window, shoving his free hand in his pocket. "Great. When and where?"

"No I don't need to write it down." His eyes scanned across the city, almost as if searching for the person on the other end of the line. "Three o'clock. Got it." With that he quickly hung up. Smack the hand that encased his phone against the window. His forehead pressed against the glass and he let out an infuriated snarl.

* * *

"BOLT! FOR CRYING OUT LOUD PASS THE BALL!" Naruto screamed from the side lines as he watched Bolt yet again try to take on the opposing teams defence by himself and fail miserably. The ball snatched from his feet and with a quick burst was being launched back down towards their own goal. "COME ON GUYS! MAKE A TACKLE!"

It was too late as the opposing team pushed and pushed before breaking through and slipping the ball into their net. Naruto blew his whistle angrily, call for the game to be over. The opposing team cheered and huddled around their coach, chattering to each other victoriously.

His own team huddled up around him all groaning in defeat, some shot angry looks towards the new blonde member of their coaching group. "So guys… What did Lee's team do that you guys didn't?"

"It's not our fault, Naruto!" One of the boys shouted back, before turning to face Bolt. "It's his!"

"Hey! At least I went for it! You were all too afraid to move forwards-ttebasa!" Bolt defended himself angrily, moving to get up in the accusing kid's face.

Naruto quickly stepped in the middle of them. "No Bolt, it's not about moving forwards, it's how you move forwards. You thought you could do it by yourself. But you have to go as a team. This is a team game after all. You have to pass the ball as well Bolt, the ball moves faster than you." He watched the blonde boy cross his arms and huff loudly. "Right, you guys know the rules. Ten sit ups, ten push ups, then five laps around the pitch."

The boys groaned loudly as they began to lay down on the artificial grass and begin the losers' ritual. Naruto moved to the other team's coach, the main coach in fact. While he himself helped out occasionally, it was Lee's actual job to coach the kids soccer team… and the kids track team… and the adults track and swimming classes… basically whatever the bowl cut black haired fitness nut could get his mitts on coaching.

The winning team were already hollering victoriously as they made their way to the showers and dressing rooms as the blonde haired man approached Lee. "You've got them all pretty good at playing soccer, Lee. I reckon if some stick at it they could even turn pro-ttebayo." Naruto grinned widely.

"Thank you for the praise, Naruto-san!" Lees smiled back, giving him a quick thumbs up. Before his black eyes moved to the blond boy still doing his push ups whilst the rest of the losing team had begun their five laps. "Alas, he might be a bit tougher. Most of these youthful boys have been in the training group since the start of the year. He has a lot to pick up on."

"I thought you liked a good challenge?" Naruto smirked back childishly towards the black haired man.

"Of course!" Lee smiled again, both sets of teeth on display. "He reminds me of you, Naruto-san! Rambunctious, full of fire and energy, and gutsy enough to not give up! Even when it was obvious he was not going to get past the defence he kept on pushing and trying."

"Heh, yeah he's got spirit." Naruto looked back towards the blond boy now running round the pitch, who although finished is push ups later was beginning to catch

"Don't worry though, Naruto-san! I will make you a youthful promise to fan his flames. I will make sure he channels all that boundless energy into something constructive." Lee grinned yet again.

Naruto laughed, watching as Bolt himself grinned as he overtook the boys mid lap, now leading them in their five laps. "I bet his mom will like that…"

* * *

Ever since Hinata returned from her lunch break she watch Karin repeatedly apologise down the phone, attempting to rearrange meetings for Sasuke. Who had apparently abruptly left after asking Karin to cancel all his remaining appointments for the remainder of the day.

She wanted to help, but she knew better than to ask. Karin was rather… possessive over Sasuke. She wouldn't allow anyone else to help her in her duties. Besides that, despite the proximity the two share, she knew her workload varied considerably to Karin's. It appeared while Sasuke went through most of the customers the company had contracts with, Neji met with the new ones, and Neji appeared to be the more vocal one of the CEO duo, as Neji's job also held a lot of responsibility over the staff.

"Hinata." She turned to see Neji standing at the door of his office. "Is your cell phone off?"

"Y-Yes, Neji-san, of course. I a-always turn it off when I came to work." Hinata replied honestly, she would always turn her cell phone off before arriving at work.

"From now on leave it on vibrate. It's a lot easier." Neji responded, for his face took to a sullen tone. "Hanabi called me, Hinata… It's… your father…"

* * *

Sasuke stared at the hotel room's closed door for a few moments. He was beginning to see the scratch marks etched into the gilded numbers screwed into black on the wood. He began to notice how the wood itself began to splinter through its white paint. He looked down at the door handle, noticing smudges and fingerprints from previous accommodators.

He banged once on the door, before a voice told him to enter. And so he did. He closed the door behind him, whilst continuing to face the two men sat in chairs in the middle of the room. Both dressed in simple black suits. One with moss green hair and pale white skin with large pupil-less yellow eyes and a happy grin on his face.

The other was a familiar face. Long brown hair pulled back into a pony tail. An angry snarl was built around his green pupil-less eyes, with sclera so bloodshot they might as well had just been red in colour.

As soon as he entered the green haired man moved to the laptop in front of them nestled on the table and pushed a button. The screen lit up, before revealing another familiar face… sort of. An orange mask with one eyehole, with a swirling pattern around it appeared on the screen. "Sasuke. Take a seat." The man on the laptop's screen spoke.

"This is my assistant Zetsu. And I believe you have already had the pleasure of meeting Kakuzu."

"Pleasure wouldn't be the word I'd use to describe it." Sasuke replied as he sat on the small couch in front of the two men and the laptop, before he turned to face Kakuzu more directly. "Meeting him is about as pleasurable as standing on a plug socket."

"Cheeky little brat." Kakuzu's angry snarl worsened, however the man on the screen simply laughed.

"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke. What are we going to do with you?" The man spoke through his dulled laughter. "The agreed upon time is over Sasuke. Well and truly over in fact…"

"And I need more time." Sasuke retorted in a cool voice. "Our starting years have been good, and our yearends have been consecutively more profitable each year, but I need more time before I can start paying you back."

"This isn't very professional, Sasuke… Your brother was very quick to pay back the agreed upon sum." Sasuke mood took a sour turn at the mention of his brother. "I was almost hurt by how quickly he paid it off. Almost as if he didn't want any association with me at all." Sasuke couldn't see his face, but he hazard a guess that this man was smirking rather than looking forlorn. "But I suppose that would be the truth, your brother wasn't really fond of how I did business. Pacifists, hey Sasuke?"

"I'm not my brother." Was his simple reply.

"Of course you're not, Sasuke. You're much more… impressionable."

"Cut the bullshit." Kakuzu butted in in a deep, angry tone. "I haven't travelled all this way for stupid chitchat. You brat, we are owed a currently standing total of 175'000'000 Ryo from you. And we expect payment."

"I only borrowed 100 million."

"Calm down, Kakuzu." The green haired one spoke to the brown haired man, whose deep, heavy breathing was filled with rage. "Let's not make a mess here."

"Consider it interest, Sasuke." The man on the screen responded. "Three months have passed since the agreed upon time has ended. We have added twenty five percent of the original sum for every month you have been late."

"And we will continue to do so until we get some sort of payment from you." Kakuzu added. "And for whatever reason why he feels charitable towards you, brat. After the first payment is made we will only add ten percent of the original sum per month."

"Fair return for fair investment, hey Sasuke?" He could almost hear the man in the laptop's mocking tone. "With how well your yearends are and of course the infamous Uchiha funds amassed over the years you should find it easy to pay it back in due time." The man chuckled once again. "Ah yes, I forget myself, that's why you came to my humble business in the first place, just like your brother. You know as well as I do the current… financial situation of the Uchiha's bank balance."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he stared at the masked man on the dimly lit screen. "Just who the hell are you? Every time I've seen you, you've hid behind that mask through a computer screen."

"Identities are important, Sasuke. And alas a man of my stature can't just go showing his face off to the world. I must remain anonymous, I must remain no one. And if you would like me to be no one to you, Sasuke. If you would like me to not exist in your world, all you have to do is pay what is owed."

Zetsu reached into his pocket, pulling out a small picture, he placed it face down on the table and slid it towards the black haired man sat alone. "If you want to play guess who, Sasuke. Can you tell me who this is?" The man on the screen continued with a light chuckle.

Sasuke stared at all three of them before moving to pick up the picture. He tried to control his eyes, but he couldn't stop them from widening in shock. "Well, Sasuke?"

"Yes." Sasuke replied whilst staring at a picture of Sakura, dressed up. He remembered the dress she wore, it was the one she wore on their first date at Jashin's.

"Tell me who she is, Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked back up towards the other men and his eyes narrowed. The words almost choked in his mouth, a bead of sweat ran down his forehead, he hoped they wouldn't have noticed, but judging by the sick smirks on Kakuzu's and Zetsu's faces, they did. "She's collateral."

"Very clever, Sasuke." The man laughed once again. "So we can expect a payment from you soon yes?"

Sasuke took the picture into his pocket. "So I give you one payment and the interest rate drops?" He asked, waiting from a nod from Zetsu before he took out his wallet. Taking out a single ten Ryo note and sliding it across the table. "Here. Consider that your first payment."

Kakuzu quickly moved to swipe the note from the table as the man in the laptop guffawed loudly. "Very funny, Sasuke… Should your company fall into ruins, you should really consider a career in comedy." He could feel the threat laced behind his humour filled words.

"The first payment will be half the original borrowed sum. 50 million." Kakuzu spoke as he pocketed the ten Ryo note.

Sasuke sighed loudly as he stood up, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Fine. I've got your numbers." With that he began to leave the room.

"We'll be in touch soon, Sasuke." The man on the screen called behind him.

As soon as Sasuke had shut the door, Kakuzu let out an infuriated snarl. "That little shit is going to be a nuisance."

"Should I contact Deidara and have him be at the ready, Tobi?" Zetsu asked with a light chuckle.

"Oh no, I know how these Uchiha are, things won't escalate to that extent." The man on the computer responded. "Despite being impeccable at his profession. A situation like this requires a certain… subtlety that Deidara simple cannot provide. Zetsu, contact Hidan and have him get some of his men ready, they'll be enough should little Sasuke decide to play against my wishes… And arrange a meeting with Kisame. I'd like to know just how much Itachi knows about our humble operation."


	13. Chapter 13

"Hinata." He watched her pace around back and forth, ignoring all his attempts to communicate. "Hinata." He repeated, but still she continued pacing, prodding her index fingers together.

"Hinata!" Eventually he grabbed her by the shoulders to halt her movements, she stared down at her fingers, but he could see the worry etched into her face. "It'll be okay!"

"Y-Yes I know but it has been seven y-years since I last saw m-my father." She murmured out quietly, he responded by wrapping his arms around her waist and gently pulling her into him. "As far as I can remember I have never even seen my father sick before. To think he would be in such a bad state and… a-and I was not there to help him."

"It'll be alright, Hinata." He whispered into her hair, gently rubbing his hand on her back. He pulled away from her, only to give her a small tender kiss. "You should go see your dad, Hinata."

"B-But…"

"No buts, Hinata. I know you feel like you have upset your dad, but you left before you found out how he actually feels. I reckon he wants to see you again, Hinata." Naruto beamed comfortingly towards her. "Especially if he's sick."

"B-But, Bolt and Himawari, they have never met their grandfather before, a-and I do not want their first memory of him to be of him in that state." She mumbled back sadly. "A-And Hanabi and Neji-nii-san will be going to see my father as well. A-And Ino-san is out of town and I cannot get into contact with Sakura-san to look after them while I'm away."

"Um… well if you don't think it's weird… I could… Y'know, look after them." Naruto mumbled out, scratching the back of his head. She saw the surprised look on his face. "I mean, if you're alright with it. I think your kids trust me, plus I am your boyfriend-ttebayo. I can look after them for a few days, trust me."

"Okay." She smiled back, moving to regain the embrace he had taken from her. They kissed again once more, before he smiled down at her.

"Don't worry, Hinata. Just go look after your dad-ttebayo."

* * *

"Alright guys, I wanna apologise for the mess before you see it. I've got… Well I've got some stuff going on at the moment-ttebayo." Naruto grinned to the two children, standing outside the door to his apartment.

"Listen, geezer. You've got a working elevator, no amount of mess can get me on a downer-ttebasa!" Bolt grinned back, swiping the key from Naruto's hand and unlocking the door, allowing himself entry to their abode for the next few days.

"Whoa…." Bolt looked around the apartment in wonder. Aside from about ten boxes stacked up in a corner, everything was immaculate. "You live here, geezer!? Why are you always at our place!? Your lounge is bigger than our apartment!" Bolt screamed in joy before running inside to explore.

There was larger windows in the lounge, leading to a large balcony with its own pool and small garden area overlooking the city. A kitchen so big he could run around in. And he had five rooms, each with its own king-sized bed.

"Look at the size of this TV, Himawari!" Bolt exclaimed, pointing to the monstrously large TV hung up on the wall. "You've got a PS4 as well, geezer! Oh, we've got to have to play on this-ttebasa!"

"Remember, Bolt, it's not just you here. We'll have to do some things Himawari wants to do as well." Naruto laughed, looking down to the small blue haired girl at his side. "Eh, Himawari?"

He saw her clutch the straps of her backpack tighter, a look of sadness and worry was on her face. He crouched down to her height, placing a hand gently on her shoulder. "Everything okay, Himawari?"

"When… When will mommy be back?" She looked up at him sadly.

"She'll only be gone a few days, Himawari." Naruto smiled back comfortingly. "I promise. We'll have a lot of fun here. Your mom knows exactly where you are, and when she gets back she's gonna rush over here. I promised her I'll look after you and keep you safe, and I don't go back on my promises."

The little girl sniffled, before wrapping her tiny arms around his neck. He gently gave her a small hug back. "You wanna see where you'll be sleeping?" He asked, and he felt her head nod against his shoulder.

"Okay then!" He smiled, before hoisting her upwards. He heard her laugh as she was shot up higher than she had ever been, gripping onto his neck tighter.

* * *

A drop off by Naruto, a three hour train ride, a pick up by Neji and Hanabi and a very agonizingly slow walk later, Hinata stood outside a great, majestic wooden door. Simply standing in front of it in a paused silence.

She knew what lay behind it, but she didn't know how badly she'd fear what lay behind it until she stood mere metres away.

Would he be happy to see her? Would he scream and shout? Would he send her away? Would he utter the words she dreaded to hear fall from his lips?

Ashamed. Disgrace. Worthless.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea? Maybe it would be better if she just left now?

"What are you waiting for, Hinata?" She heard Neji's deep voice at her side. His hand reaching for the doorknob. "He has been expecting you."

With that he opened the door, and gave her a slight push inside.

She remembered the first time she had seen her parent's room, she had never seen décor so magnificent. Furniture had never been so exquisite. A bed had never seemed so… big.

And in that bed was her father, sat up reading a newspaper, his lower body covered by the blankets. She could already see he was not his usual self. His usually well-groomed hair was messy and greyed slightly, his skin was paler and wrinkles appeared more pronounced. His eyes, behind his reading glasses looked tired and exhausted. The raspy coughs that escaped his chest every few moments didn't say healthy as a horse.

His eyes peeked up over the newspaper, boring into her very essence. "Hinata. How good of you to drop by."

"F-Father…" She muttered out quietly. "Neji-nii-san a-and Hanabi-chan told me you were ill."

"You know how your sister is." He responded back dully. Closing the newspaper with a sigh. "Fretting over the tiniest little problems. It appears my health is another thing for her to fret over. I do not feel as bad as this, however Hanabi insists I stay in bed and rest."

"That's because she worries, Father." She spoke, moving over to his bedside, and taking the teapot that had been left, pouring him a fresh new cup of tea, before leaving it at his bedside. Her hand snaked over to cover his hand. "H-Hanabi, Neji-nii-san, myself… You… Y-You are all we have left."

His eyes widened slightly, before a small, graceful smile appeared on his face, his hand twisted to hold onto her own. "You look well, Hinata."

She smiled back happily in return. "I-I am. T-Thank you, Father."

"You still stutter." He responded bluntly. "I thought children would have kicked that habit out of you. You cannot discipline correctly if you are not confident."

She looked down sadly, she should have expected him to bring up her children as soon as given the opportunity. "I assume they are somewhere in the manor?" He continued.

"No, F-Father. I left them with… w-with their father. I did not want them to have you like this be their first memory of you?"

"Would I frighten them so?" He looked back at her almost amused.

"N-No! It is just… You were so full of strength, Father." She replied quietly. "Nothing ever seemed to break you down. You were always able to soldier on with such strength. I… I wanted them to see that side of you first, strong, before seeing you like this… How did this happen father? I have never seen you taken ill before. Even after… M-Mother's passing, you remained so strong."

"I assume it was because you left without word or warning." He replied quickly, before letting out a loud, raspy cough. She only sat in a stunned silence, watching her father cough hoarsely. "You think my strength is some refined characteristic I have built up over the years? No, Hinata. I was strong because I had to be. I was strong because you gave me strength. You, Hanabi and Neji. You three were my strength, and in return I remained strong for you three, even when you mother died… And when you left, Hinata… A part of my strength left with you."

"F-Father…"

"Why did you leave, Hinata?" He asked, looking into her eyes, she could almost see a flicker of sadness behind his stern gaze.

"W-W-Well… I-I thought that you… M-My children…"

"You thought, because you became pregnant I would discard you? That I would be ashamed of you? I will admit honestly that I would have been disappointed due to your age at becoming pregnant. But I would have helped you, Hinata. I would have aided you and respected whatever choice you made." He looked towards her with an unshakeable gaze.

A tear fell from her pearl white eyes. "Father… I-I did not know…"

"May I see them?" He asked quietly.

She nodded, taking out her phone and finding a perfect picture of the two of them together, she moved to sit closer to her father, holding the phone in front of them both. "The girl is Himawari, and the boy is Bolt."

Her father chuckled to himself as he stared at the picture of the two of them. "Amazing… It seems only the girl got your skin tone and hair colour. Someone out there has genes that are stronger than our own. That is quite a scary thought… What is their father like?"

"He is great with them." She smiled back happily. "He is kind, and strong like you father. He is a bit clumsy sometimes, but he always seems to try his very best in everything he attempts. One day… I would like you to meet him, Bolt and Himawari too."

Hiashi smiled back as he took her phone from her and held it closer to his face, gazing at the smiling faces of the two children. "I would like that…"

* * *

"Okay, are you two facing the back wall?" Naruto spoke to the two children behind the closed doors.

"Yes!"

"Okay, I'm coming in now." Naruto spoke again, before opening the door to the bathroom. He saw the two children facing away from him in the large circular bathtub towards the back wall where a TV hung high above it. "I'm not quite sure why I have to be in here with you, you're both old enough to bathe yourselves."

"Yeah I don't know why either, geezer." Bolt replied with a loud content sigh, pulling his right foot out of the water and flexed his toes. "This is the lap of luxury-ttebasa. You could fit, like six people in the tub."

"M-Mommy usually has a bath with us, she cleans our backs and washes our hair. Mommy asks us how our day was and tells us stories when we are in the bath." Himawari added quietly.

"Sorry, Himawari. But I can't do all that." He responded honestly, but he pulled up a stool and sat behind them. Facing the backs of their heads. "But I can sit out here and wash your hair if you want?"

"Yes, please, Naruto-san." Himawari turned her head slightly to smile towards him.

He smiled back, before moving to grab the shampoo he had. Pouring a small amount into his hands before lathering it gently into her hair. "Could you tell us a story, Naruto-san?"

"Sure! What kind?"

"Something happy."

"Something cool!"

"Happy and cool huh?" Naruto mused for a moment, before something clicked in his mind. "Okay I got one. Once upon a time, there was a girl. She came from a different land to a completely new one to her. When she first saw the massive city she had moved to, she was scared. She came from a small island you see, and the city she had come to was bigger than her entire island and-"

"Boring!"

"Shut it, Bolt! I'm building to something here-ttebayo!" Naruto shouted back at the small blond boy angrily, before returning to gently stroke Himawari's damp purple hair back, using a finger to wipe the shampoo from her forehead before it could trail down to her eyes. "Anyways, the girl was very pretty. With beautiful hair… a bit like yours Himawari!" He stopped for a moment to hear the girl giggle happily whilst Bolt simply scoffed in disgust. "But when it was her first day at school, she realised that the children born in the city didn't like outsiders. They made fun of her for where she came from. They made fun of her beautiful hair."

"Why?"

"Because it was an unusual colour. It was very bright red, as red as chili peppers. The way they made fun of it made her hate her hair."

He could see the girl's brow furrow sadly. "That is not very nice at all…"

"No it wasn't. Everyone in her class made fun of her-ttebayo. Everyone would call her Tomato, because of her hair and she had a round face. Everyone except one boy. Sure he stared at her all the time, but he never said anything. In fact, throughout the entire time at school. He had never once said a word to her."

"What was his problem? Could he not speak Japanese or something?" Bolt asked curiously.

"Oh nothing like that." Naruto responded, before moving the stool to sit behind Bolt, taking fresh shampoo to lather into his hair. "She wondered why he didn't make fun of her, why he would never say a word to her. When she asked him, he said he didn't want any part of it. The girl got angry, she figured, if he didn't make fun of her, it must have been because he thought he was better than her, better than everyone else. So she began to make fun of him, he was very short, and skinny, and a bit of a geek-ttebayo. He looked frail and girly, so she began to call him names. She could him geek, loser, girly, flaky. Every time she caught him looking at her, she would shout 'Whatcha looking at, Flaky?'"

He looked down, seeing Bolt's bored blue eyes looking back up at him through his lathered, pulled back blond locks. "But still the boy never said a word to her. And it made her so angry! Now the boy was not what he seemed as she soon found out, she thought he was weak, but she found out that she was dead wrong. The boy was very smart, and strong, and he was the fastest person in his entire school. Plus he was great at everything he did, and he played soccer, and made one awesome midfielder, no one in the teams he played against could even get close to him!" He saw Bolt's eyes shine with a new found interest. "He was a great playmaker, and even as a midfielder, he scored more goals than any player in his school's history. And when people thought they had got away from him, he would appear at their side in the blink of an eye to steal the ball from them. People began to call him the Yellow Flash, because of how fast he was and his bright blond hair. Like yours Bolt, hey, maybe there's a connection between you two?"

"Eh what can I say Geezer, gorgeous blond hair, amazing soccer skills, it seems high likely-ttebasa." Bolt replied, smugly looking down at his fingernails.

"Anyways, at the end of the year, he had picked up a lot of attention from big soccer clubs, and they were fighting to get him to join their club, even though he was only fourteen. And he picked one, and thus he had to transfer to a new school closer to the club he joined so he could enter and practice in their academy after school. And thus he went out of the young girl's life."

"Yeah, that's pretty cool and all, geezer. But not the happiest ending in the world." Bolt spoke out for the two of them, both of them watching Naruto as he plucked the shower head of its stand and sat behind them, testing the temperature of the water on his hand before gently pulling Bolt's head back and letting the water run through his hair.

"But that's not the ending." Naruto replied with a grin. "For four years the girl didn't see the boy, and in that time she had grown as beautiful as her hair, her face wasn't round, so people couldn't call her Tomato anymore. Everything seemed to go well for the girl now. Until one day."

"What happened, Naruto-san?" Himawari asked hurriedly.

Naruto moved to sit behind the girl again, washing the soapiness out her hair. "Some nasty men were in town, and when she was taking a stroll in the forest they tried to take her away. She tried to run, but they grabbed her by her hair, almost yanking it out! They tied up her hands, and dragged her through the trees."

"Oh no!" The little girl exclaimed with worry.

"But don't worry, Himawari, the girl was very clever-ttebayo! Without the nasty men noticing, she pulled out her hair three strands at a time and dropped them on the ground. She made a trail, hoping that someone would pick it up and find her."

"But. As further and as further as they got away from her new home, the more she began to lose hope. She remembered how everyone would make fun of her when she was little, and how they didn't like outsiders. And she began to think that no one would bother to come rescue her. And just when she was about to reach the border of the country. She was saved!"

"Really!?" The small girl exclaimed happily. "By who?"

"By the boy who never said a word to her! By the boy she would call weak and frail and girly and flaky! Like a bolt of lightning suddenly he was there, he beat up the men that had tried to take her and used the rope they had tied her hands and tied them to a tree. He swept up the girl and carried her out of the dark woods and took her to the top of a waterfall nearby, so the sun could shine down on the girl."

"How did he find her so quick?" Bolt asked with as much interest as his sister.

"That's what the girl asked! She wondered how he managed to find her when no one else could. The boy smiled at her, and took out of his pocket a big handful of her hair. The hair she had dropped as a trail. And he answered her. 'I recognised your hair instantly! I used to stare at it all the time, I've never seen anything as beautiful as your hair-ttebayo!' Then it was at that moment, the girl didn't see the weak little boy anymore, and she did something she never had done before, she began to love her hair, and she fell in love with the boy."

The small girl in front of him sighed happily and beamed towards him. "That was a lovely story, Naruto-san. As good as any story mommy has told us."

"Y'know, they say that to this day the girl and the boy are still in love with each other, and they say that the girl has special words. Words she only says to people who compliment her hair."

"What does she say?"

"Here's a towel." Naruto said, holding out a towel for Bolt, as he stood up the blonde man wrapped the towel around the boy and lifted him out the bath. Bolt held it around him whilst Naruto did the same to Himawari.

The blond man sat down on the stall again and held a smaller towel, the girl stood in front of him, wrapped up in the large towel from shoulders to the ankles as he dried her hair. "If you compliment her hair, she will say 'I love you'." He heard the little girl laugh happily under the towel wrapped over her head, causing him to beam back.

* * *

_Let it go! Let it go!_

"I'm trying but it's got some grip!" Naruto grunted quietly, trying to pull himself out of the headlock the two children currently had him in. Both of their sleeping forms had their arms locked tight around his neck. They had fallen asleep like that, but he soon discovered they moved around a lot in their sleep.

He finally managed to break Himawari's grip on him, gently laying her back on the couch. "Bedtime then, you two." He whispered with a smile, lifting Bolt up and cradling his sleeping form against him. The boy's head fell on his shoulder, and he soon felt a warm puddle of drool pool on his shirt. "You're disgusting, kid."

He carried the boy to his temporary room, pulling back his bed sheets and laying the boy in the bed. After struggling for a minute, he broke the boy's grip on him, before pulling the bed sheet back over him and tucking him in. "Good night, Bolt."

The blond boy sighed loudly, turning over in the bed. "Good night, geezer." He mumbled out in his sleep.

He tiptoed back to the living room and up to the couch. "Your turn cutie." He whispered with a soft smile, gently picking up the girl and cradled her in his arms.

He carried her back to her room, before tucking her in, watching a smile grow on her face. He tiptoed away to the door, before turning back around to look at her again. "Goodnight, Himawari."

Like her brother, Himawari sighed with content, turning over on her side and snuggling up in a ball.

"Goodnight, daddy."

* * *

**A/N**: Yo! So this is Chapter 12b, otherwise known as Chapter 13. This half of the chapter was basically what this story is about, I know because it's tagged as NaruHina everyone thinks it's a story about them two falling in love, but that is not what this story is about, this story is about a guy finding out he has got kids, and him bonding with his kids, a guy becoming a father.

Why I said this chapter shows what the story is about? Because it has two different styles of bonding, one where the relationship is known Hinata and Hiashi, and one where there is a bond, but it's not known by the two of them, so it is almost subconscious to one of the parties involved, as shown at the end of this chapter, Naruto and Himawari have a bond, enough of one for Himawari to subconsciously look at him as a father.

Anyways...

The End

Of Act II


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Yo! Rinne here! I know this is late, and you know what? I'm not even sorry it is late. You see what happened was I entered a new school, I was one of the first five boys to be allowed in in this former all girls school. You can imagine it right!? So through some dumb idea, I forget who brought it up, we decided to go peeping, we ended up being caught and we were thrown into a prison they had on campus for a month, due to an escape attempt it got extended another month, a lot of shit happened I'd rather not explain to preserve the honour of a fair maiden, but I got out and here I am!

But seriously though KiyoshixHana-san is love, KiyoshixHana-san is life.

Okay truthfully, here is a list of things I did whilst procrastinating to avoid writing this chapter:

Watch Prison School (see above for the general outline of the plot), seriously the show was incredibly funny, best thing I've ever seen.

Watched Monster Musume - that was... Wow...

Watched One Piece (and by watched, I mean WATCHED One Piece 1 to 700 and something something)

Played Dark Souls 2

The problem was, I knew what I wanted to do with this chapter, but the idea of actually writing it seemed so... tedious? Anyways, it's done now so you can all enjoy! (Hopefully)

* * *

"….Urgh…." A low, aggravated grumble resonated quietly through the master bedroom, muffled by the sandy blond hair the mouth was pressed against.

Again the phone vibrated on the bedside table, and a beady eye shot open slightly, darting to the right. His brow furrowed as he listened to the phone continued its annoying vibrating.

"Shikamaru, either turn your phone off or answer that already…" His new wife grumbled out quietly, awoken by the noise as well.

"I want it to stop… but I'm too comfortable to move… it's so troublesome…"

"Fine… I'll answer it…" She shuffled before rolling on top of him, reaching across to grab the phone. She quickly swiped the phone without looking and swallowed, getting the dry and raspy tone out of her voice. "Hello?"

"**AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

"Who is this?"

"**AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

"Okay… I'm going to hang up now creep."

"**SHIKAMARU! NEED TO TALK TO SHIKAMARU-TTEBAYO**!"

'_ttebayo?_' She thought momentarily, before she dropped the phone on the black haired man's face, before rolling across him again and curling herself up in the bedsheets. "It's Naruto."

He groaned loudly, before moving the phone to his ear. "Naruto? It's 2:30 in the morning, what the hell do you want?"

"**H-HI-HIMA-HIMAWARI**!"

"What about her?" He asked dryly, sitting up in his bed, looking across at the clock angrily again.

"**She called…. She called me daddy!"**

"Right…" Shikamaru responded slowly, judging by Naruto's deeply freaked out tone, it sounded like he hadn't taken being called dad particularly well. Still half asleep, Shikamaru smacked his lips together again, his eyes closing with drowsiness.

"**Didn't you hear me, Shikamaru!? Hinata's daughter called me daddy!"**

'_Hinata…_' His mind began clicking somewhat, memories of the woman and the brief conversation he had with her flashed through his mind. "Oh so I guess Hinata told you?"

"**What?"**

"What?"

"**Hinata told me what, Shikamaru?"**

"Troublesome…" He groaned quietly to himself, apparently, Hinata hadn't told Naruto of her paternal suspicions regarding him and her two children.

"**Shikamaru?... You just went real quiet-ttebayo…."**

"Listen, Naruto. Why have got so freaked out about Himawari calling you dad? I thought you were always looking forward to having kids?"

"**Well I am… But, y'know… I thought… I thought that… I didn't expect these two to think of me as their dad… I thought I was just gonna be Naruto to them-ttebayo."**

"Well that means you must be doing a good job with them. If that girl can call you dad, it must mean Himawari feels a bond with you, Naruto. Those two kids, they may have never really had a father figure in their lives before until you can along. Himawari must trust you a lot, enough to see you being able to fill that empty role in her life, and is that such a bad thing, Naruto?"

"**Well… If you put it like that… I guess not…"**

"See… Now stop overreacting and go to bed, Naruto." And with that, Shikamaru hung up. Taking no chances, this time he turned his phone off before dropping it onto his bedside table before curling back into the back of Temari again.

* * *

'_Shikamaru was right… I was just overreacting… So what if Himawari sees me as a father figure… That's actually a pretty good thing…_' Naruto thought to himself as he unpacked a grocery bag, during his very brief and completely controlled panic attack he had come to the conclusion that he really did not have anything nutritional in his cupboards… well for him, three ramen cups was very nutritional, however in Hinata's eyes, a mother's eyes, he guessed they probably weren't nutritional or healthy enough to give children for breakfast. And so he had dashed the small grocery store down the street, which luckily opened at six in the morning to pick up some different foods.

Cereal, check. It probably wasn't the most appealing to kids, it was just sticks of wheat, but it was high in fibre.

Toppings for said cereal, check. The blonde had never had so much fruit in his house, blueberries, apples, bananas, strawberries. He assumed they might not go for the fruit, especially Bolt, so he also picked up some chocolate spread and peanut butter, they could and the spread and microwave it and turn it into porridge right?

Milk, check. He had milk yes, but at least this milk was definitely in date and safe to give to kids. He did really tend to drink much milk at home and usually got it from work, so he was used to occasionally drinking expired milk, Bolt and Himawari weren't.

Juice, check. Orange juice, apple juice, basically whatever fruit juice the store had the highest quantity of stock of.

Naruto finished unpacking the rest of the bags, bread and butter, eggs. Before he rolled up his sleeves, put in one earphone and washed his hands, before preparing what was perhaps his most ever prepared breakfast ever.

Sunny side up eggs were cooking and toast was breading- I mean, bread was toasting, as he prepared the table, he washed all the plates and cutlery once more before laying them out on the table.

The toaster pinged and he collecting the nicely toasted bread and placed them on another plate, when the eggs were ready he did the same with them, leaving the spatula on the plate. The cooker was turned off and he moved to both of their rooms, telling each of them breakfast was ready.

He removed the earphone and moved back to the sink and was washing the frying pan when he heard the scuttling of two small feet enter the room.

"Whoa, I didn't think you had this in you geezer, I half expected some ready-made food. Like instant ramen cups or something." Bolt spoke nonchalantly, already diving to the table and loading a plate up with eggs and toast.

"I thought about it." Naruto laughed as he pulled the now soaked, but clean frying pan from the soapy water and placed it on the drying rack.

"Good morning, Tou-san."

He whipped around quickly, a panicked look on his face again as he stared down at the small Himawari, dressed still in her pink and yellow pyjamas. "Whatdidyousay?"

"I said good morning, Naruto-san." Himawari repeated with a happy smile, before taking her seat, instantly picking some of the cereal and chopped up fruit, before adding milk to the bowl.

The blond man sighed heavily, drying his hands with a towel before taking his own seat, taking some toast for himself. "So how is everything? I'll admit my cooking skills are a little rusty, and by rusty, I mean non-existent."

"It's very tasty, Naruto-san." Himawari smiled back as she continued eating her fruit filled cereal.

"Yeah, that's our dad!"

"WhatwasthatBolt?" Naruto's head whipped to the young blond boy. Who return the look with a puzzled one.

"I said, these eggs aren't half bad…" Bolt replied slowly, before looking at his younger twin sister. "Hey, Himawari, I think our old man is losing his hearing."

"WhatwasthatBolt!?"

"I said, I think the old man is losing his hearing." Bolt responded with a snarky tone. "Seriously, you should probably go see a doctor!"

Naruto breathed heavily again, rubbing his hand through his hair. _'Why do I keep mishearing things? Why do I keep panicking? Do I really think it's that bad that they might look at me as a father figure? Shikamaru said it's nothing to worry about, and he's right… but I can't help shake this feeling… that I might not be a good father figure to them… that I am gonna fail them…'_ He sighed again deeply, before shaking the train of thought away. "It's nice outside today, how about we go to the park and get some fresh air?"

"Yeah, sounds like fun!" Bolt grinned back in response, half a piece of toast hanging in his mouth.

* * *

"I've never been this far out the city before! Who knew this field was here!?" Bolt looked over the grassy hills with wonder.

"Yeah, over this hill is a play park, it's quite nice out here, away from the noise of the city." Naruto laughed as he watched Bolt charge up to the top of the green hill.

Bolt laughed loudly again, taking in the view all around him, grass in a fresh green colour as far as he could see. And at the bottom of the hill, as promised by Naruto was a large play park, with multiple slides and swings and other play apparatus. Instantly he sprinted down the hill towards the park.

"I think Mom would like it here…" Himawari looked around at the hill in as much wonder as Bolt.

"Well when you mom's back we will come back here, and we will bring a picnic and everything." Naruto beamed down to the blue haired girl. "Now Himawari, go play with your brother… Oh, and I'm putting you in charge, Himawari, make sure you and Bolt stay in my sight okay?"

The girl nodded excitedly before skipping down the hill towards the park to join her brother. Naruto calmly walked down the hill behind them. Laughing to himself as he watched them run around the park.

"Well if it isn't Naruto." He turned as he heard the familiar voice. He saw the raven haired man sat on a picnic blanket, with a basket next to him and a pinked haired woman's head resting on his shoulder.

"Sasuke? This is weird, this place is so bright and filled with colour, and well… you're not, to be honest I always thought you were a vampire or something-ttebayo, you never go outside during the day." Naruto looked puzzled as he stood away from the couple, opting not to fully approach them lest he interrupt them, although Sasuke did call him out.

"Hnn…" Sasuke grunted as nonchalantly as ever. "It doesn't matter if I'm a vampire or not, there's no denying that you're a loser." His black eyes pierced at Naruto, smirking victoriously as he saw Naruto's temper beginning to boil. "Naruto, this is Sakura. Sakura, Naruto." He quickly spoke to stop any comeback from Naruto.

The pink haired girl looked at him with vibrant green eyes. "So you're Naruto." She looked at him with a smile.

"Uhh… Do you know me or something?" He asked curiously, the smile she gave him indicated that she already knew some things about him. _'Pleasedon'tbeafriendofShion'sPleasedon'tbeafriendofShion'sPleasedon'tbeafriendofShion'sPleasedon'tbeafriendofShion's'_

"Of course, the way Sasuke goes on about you, a part of me wonders if it should be you with your head resting on Sasuke's shoulder!" She laughed to herself, missing the looks of horror between the two men. She continued laughing as she looked at him once more. "I'm kidding! I'm a friend of Hinata's. She's… well she's said a lot about you."

"Really?" He blushed faintly. "I'm sorry it took so long to meet you. Hinata's never really introduced me to her friends, so I thought... you know, she was embarrassed about me or something."

"Oh no quite the contrary! It's actually kind of cute, I've never seen Hinata act like that before!" Sakura laughed quietly.

Naruto smiled back with a faint blush, so Hinata could well be as bad as he was, he remembered Shikamaru telling him to shut up about his new girlfriend many times.

"So Naruto, when were you gonna tell me?" Sasuke asked bluntly, almost as if to remind them he was there.

"Tell you what?" The blonde asked with a weird look.

"About the kids, you never told me you had kids?" Sasuke answered again.

"What? Oh no you got the wrong idea, Sasuke, those are Hinata's kids, the boy's Bolt &amp; the girl is Himawari. Their pretty cute right?" Naruto laughed again, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"I'm sure I told you about Hinata's children, Sasuke-kun?" The pink haired girl looked towards the black haired man with a confused expression.

"You did. I just didn't expect those kids with Naruto to be them. Plus, the boy looks just like you at that age Naruto… poor kid." Sasuke looked across to the playpark, with the two children in question playing happily on the swings.

"Really? You think so?" Naruto laughed nervously, turning around to face the play park as well, luckily he had turned, that way he did not see Sakura's eye twitch nervously. Of course she knew about Hinata's suspicions regarding the biological father of her children, and how her new boyfriend seemed to fit the bill for it.

"Yeah, the kid looks like you more than I look like Itachi." Sakura screamed internally at her boyfriend straight to the point words, she wanted to scream at him to shut up so he wouldn't say anything more. Based on Naruto's reaction, Hinata still hadn't addressed her suspicions with him.

Naruto looked across, directly at Bolt, seeing him grinning like a loon whilst he sat on the swings, trying to reach higher and higher. He saw the bright blue sheen in his eyes and toothy grin, how his thick blonde hair rode the wind. His face scrunched, and Naruto tilted his head to the side. "I guess… Now that I think about it, he does kinda look like me-ttebayo. I've never really thought about it befo-"

_You never told me you had kids?_

_The boy looks just like you at that age Naruto._

_Oh so I guess Hinata told you?_

_Goodnight, daddy. _

_Goodnight, daddy. _

_Goodnight, daddy. _

_Goodnight, daddy. _

_Goodnight, daddy. _

_Goodnight, daddy. _

_Goodnight, daddy. _

_Goodnight, daddy. _

_Goodnight, daddy._

"Hey, I don't think I've ever seen you around Konoha before!? Do you live here!?" Drunken, slurred words sprang back into his minds. Words spoke many years ago by himself, on his first ever night out for his birthday. And the person he said them to sprang into his mind, a person h had thought about a few times when he was together with Shion, but had not thought of once since meeting Hinata.

Her shy stare, laced slightly with giddiness most likely caused by the alcohol in her own hand. A faint blush across her face. Her long dark blue hair, like the night sky before the sun began to rise. Her eyes, pale and bright like the moon illuminating that same sky.

'_Now that I think about it, Hinata looks a lot like that girl, but it couldn't be. Bolt and Himawari… they would have been born by then, right?_' He pondered, trying to figure out the math in his head._ 'They just turned seven in July, and my twenty-sixth birthday is coming up… Which means… when they were born I was still eighteen… Which means… they were born nine months… after… my…'_

He looked across at the twins, and they happened to spot his stare, Himawari smiled and waved happily at him, Bolt grinned, offering him a thumbs up. His eyes widened with horror and shock. '_Eighteenth… birthday…_'

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"Oh shit."


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:** Hi. Well here we are, the penultimate chapter of Missed Years. Is it up to the standards you readers so desperately desire? Probably not. But it is a longer chapter that Chapter 14, positives and negatives people, positives and negatives.

Anyways, if you guys have your feels at the ready, here we go!

* * *

What had started as a rush to look after her father in an ill state had actually turned out to be quite a pleasant trip for her. True to his word, Hanabi had exaggerated his sickness somewhat. Within a day her father was strolling around his manor again, although she had insisted that he still rest.

She had actually managed to finally find a bond with her father, she wasn't blessed with a genius intellect for business like Neji or Hanabi, so there was never anything truly for her to connect with her father about.

However, she had children, and they had managed to finally connect through their children. She would tell her father stories of Bolt's rambunctiousness and Himawari's confidence, and her father would reminisce about her and Hanabi as children, how they were rather similar. She spoke about them not having a father most of their life, and it was another thing they could connect on. As Hiashi had similarly dealt with a child without a father, when he had adopted Neji and taken him into his home following the death of his younger twin brother. He remembered Neji's anger of the event, how it tormented him, how it took years for Neji to open up to him.

And surprisingly to her. She was also able to connect with her father over love. Her father would talk openly about her mother, something he had never truly done before. And in return, Hinata would inform him about Naruto, what he was like, how he was so good with Bolt and Himawari, how he managed to channel Bolt impossible amounts of energy into something productive and help Himawari develop confidence.

And so, she went home happy. Knowing that at the end of it all, she still had a father, and it was only through her jumping to conclusions prematurely did she lack him in her life for such a long time.

She had returned to the city, it was late when she had finally arrived in the train station. She knew Bolt and Himawari were staying at Naruto's during her time away. So she had decided to get a taxi straight to the blonde man's home. She didn't want to disturb him as it was approaching Bolt and Himawari's bedtime. And he may have just finally got them to settle down.

She arrived at Naruto's apartment complex. It was larger than her own, with much nicer architecture in a much more quaint part of the city. And also, his apartment complex had a working elevator. Which was especially useful as Naruto was in the penthouse at the very top of the building. He had done a lot of work on the top floor of the building, knocking down walls, opening up part of it to create a roof garden. She wondered how he was able to do so much to the building. He once joked that it was because he owned the entire building, and she wasn't quite sure whether his joke was based on a truth or not.

After ascending up the elevator, she reached the top floor, the elevator opened up to a small box room, with the door to Naruto's apartment on the other side of the room.

Naruto had said that he would leave the door open for her when she came back. And sure enough the door was open when she tried the handle.

She opened the door, and found the apartment dimly lit. The flickering light of the television scattering across the room. She saw the blonde man facing out against his wall made of windows. And sat in front of the TV was Bolt, not even dressed for bed, he even still had his shoes on. "Bolt?"

He turned to her and beamed wildly. "Hi mom! Welcome back!"

"What are you doing still up? It is far past your bedtime now." She gave him a scornful look.

Naruto turned from the window and looked at the back of the boy's head. "Bolt, I thought I told you to go to bed an hour ago-ttebayo."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah I'm going. I'm just going to bathroom first." The boy sighed heavily, before jumping off the couch. He quickly moved over to his mother. "Something's wrong with the geezer, mom. He's been really quiet and weird ever since we got back from the park." The boy shrugged, before moving towards the bathroom.

Hinata watched him he shut the bathroom door behind him. She turned and caught the eyes of the blond man. She smiled happily, however Naruto quickly turned back around to face out the window again.

Her smiled faded. "I-I'm back, Naruto-kun."

"Welcome back." He replied quietly, almost in a broken whisper.

She hesitated moving towards him. His actions were rather bizarre, she had expected a greeting a bit more lively than the one he had given if she were honest. "N-Naruto-kun, is e-everything okay?"

"October 10th."

"What was that?" She asked, barely able to make out his words.

"October 10th. Almost eight years ago. Where were you, Hinata, on October 10th-ttebayo?" He turned around to face her finally. She discovered his eyes to not show anger, but rather an image of fear.

But her own eyes widened in shock. October 10th. Almost eight years ago. That was the night she met the boy who would become the father of her children. The boy she thought was Naruto, and his friend Shikamaru near enough confirmed.

"You were at Hamura's, weren't you?" Her eyes widened even further. He knew? "You were wearing a black dress, and you met a blonde boy who was out with his friends for his eighteenth birthday. You complained that you didn't like the dress you were wearing, your friends had forced you too wear it and you didn't feel comfortable wearing it. You admitted you didn't even want to be at that tiny club, but your friends had wanted to go out and you couldn't say no. You and the boy carried on talking, and laughing… and drinking, and before you knew it, you were at some crappy motel. And… and… and…" Tears began to well around his blue eyes, and on cue, tears began to well in her own. "Oh shit, Hinata… It was your first time and you wound up pregnant. I'm such an idiot!" He near shouted as he grabbed and pulled at his head.

"N-N-Naruto-kun, it was not your fault. I am too blame as well." She rushed to him, tears falling from her face as she did so.

"No! Why didn't I realise it sooner? I left you all alone to raise these kids, and then I just waltz around with you like nothing's wrong!" He cried even harder than before. "I… I can't believe I was so stupid I didn't tell you who I was back then…"

"I-I didn't tell you who I was either, Naruto-kun." She tried to comfort him. "It wasn't your fault it had happened. It was our mutual decision to leave that club. No one… N-No one had ever made me feel as special as that boy did that night. N-Not before, and not since… Not until you had acted so kindly to me in that supermarket… And then you came back to me… And I was so happy to have you back that I didn't know how to tell you…"

"So… you knew? That I am definitely…? That what I said… it's true?" He asked, his head buried into her shoulder.

"N-Not at first." She responded. "But I had a feeling, and then your friend, Shikamaru, he told me you were there. And I started to believe my suspicions were true."

"So Shikamaru knew, huh? And… why didn't you tell me earlier?" He asked further.

"I was scared. I was scared of how you would react… I-I was scared… you would leave…" She replied honestly, burying her head into his chest.

He lifted her head back upwards to face him, before her kissed her firmly, almost securely. Once their lips parted he pressed his forehead against her's. "I won't leave you, Hinata. You get me? I will never leave you. That's a promise of a lifetime-ttebayo. I'll spend every day for the rest of my life making up my mistake, I'll never leave you alone again."

She smiled back happily, hugging him tightly. "Thank you, Naruto-kun." She cried happily into his chest.

"Although… My lifespan is about to decrease dramatically. I'd say about to the time it takes to get from Uzu no Kuni to here." His weak laugh did nothing to mask the fear in his voice, and she had to look up to him in confusion. He caught her confused gaze. "When I tell my mom she's got grandkids that are nearly eight years old, she'll kill me. She whines about it a lot, always asking when I'm gonna bring her home some grandkids-ttebayo. When she finds out that she does have grandkids that she hasn't been able to see for nearly eight years because I was an idiot. She'll charge over here from Uzu no Kuni and beat me to death… then she'll spoil Bolt and Himawari rotten with eight years' worth of presents."

"Will she really react that badly?" Hinata asked almost worriedly, she couldn't tell with his weak laugh if it was truthful or not.

"Probably, you haven't met my mom, Hinata. She's pretty damn scary. And violent. She threw a frying pan at me when I last went to visit her because I hadn't visited or called for eight months. I can only imagine how bad she'll be when I show up and go: 'Hi mom, this is Hinata. A girl I got pregnant eight years ago. And this is my son and daughter, Bolt and Himawari.'" He laughed again nervously, but the beads of sweat dripping from his face showed a different, more panicked story.

"What?"

They both turned quickly at the small voice. They looked in shock as they saw Bolt standing in the hallway. "B-Bolt…" Hinata spoke quietly, seeing the tormented, angered look on the young boy's face.

"Your son and daughter? So the old geezer is actually… my old geezer!?" The young boy shouted angrily. "You're my dad-ttebasa!"

"Bolt, listen…" Naruto spoke gently, slowly approaching the boy. "I get that you'll be confused. But if you calm down, me and your mom will try to explain everything and-oof!" He was cut off by a punch to his stomach by Bolt. It was particularly hard, but the surprise of it somehow knocked the wind out of him.

Bolt quickly darted for the door bursting it open. "Bolt, please wait!" Hinata tried to follow after him. But it appeared no one had used that elevator since she had, as the doors opened quickly. As she chased him she watched him smash buttons inside, and just before she could reach the doors closed. She watched as the lights above began to flicker, indicating what floor the elevator currently was at. "Naruto-kun, we have to go after him!"

"I know!" He grumbled as he rose to his feet. He looked back into his apartment. "Hinata, you stay here with Himawari. I promise I'll find him." With that, Naruto took off to the stairs in the small room next to the elevator. Sprinting down them at a lightning pace.

Hinata watched him leave worriedly. Bolt had always been resentful of his missing father, even if he never liked to say it. She would remember seeing him stare with almost envy at children playing with their father's. When she attended parent teacher meetings, she would see him stare at the father's praising their children.

"Mommy, what's going on?" She turned to see the scared Himawari, standing in her pyjamas. She quickly rushed over to the small girl, picking her up in her arms.

"It will be okay, Himawari-chan." She responded reassuringly, gently rubbing the small girl's back. "Bolt and Naruto-kun, have just gone out for the moment. They will both be back soon."

"… Naruto-san is… my daddy?"

Her eyes widened again, so their conversation had woken up Himawari, and had been overheard by her too. "Yes, I am sorry, Himawari. I am sorry that he has not been her for you, and I know Naruto-kun is as well. But Naruto-kun is going to work very hard to show you that he will always be here for you now."

"I'm glad…" Himawari whispered back to her. "I'm glad… my daddy is so nice. I knew if I ever met my real daddy… I wanted him to be as nice as Naruto-san…"

* * *

'_Bolt!_' Naruto ran down street after street, his eyes constantly flickering around looking for any sight of the small blond haired boy.

He supposed he understood why he was so angry. Bolt didn't have a dad, and now one was being thrust open him so quickly. But he also knew Bolt liked him, enough that he was surprised over how angry he was. Was the blood relation really that catastrophic?

Nonetheless, a seven year old running off at this hour was never a good thing.

He continued searching, he found himself quite far away from his home. He stumbled across a city park, and decided to take a look around. It was still lit thanks to the street lights. And hopefully Bolt had stayed in the light.

Better yet. He had found him. Sat on a lonely swing. Kicking his feet back and forth weakly. He was facing away from him, so Naruto approached the boy slowly and quietly, under different circumstances, he'd probably make a joke about him moving like he thought he was a ninja or something.

"Bolt." He spoke, the boy's head snapped up and turned sharply.

"What do you want?" He grunted angrily, remaining sat on the swing.

"Bolt. I know you're feeling angry, but you can't just go running off like this-ttebayo. Your mom is really worried, come back with me."

"I'm not going anywhere with you! You're not my dad-ttebasa!" He shot up from the swing, glaring angrily at the blond man.

But Naruto spotted the tear that fell faintly from his eye. "Bolt, is it really that bad that I'm your dad? I mean you like me before you heard that?"

"Yeah, that's because then you were the super cool old geezer Naruto! That would play video games with me, and watched One Piece with me, and taught me how to play soccer… but now… you're just my crappy old man-ttebasa!" He screamed, his tightened fists shaking with rage. "My crappy old man who was never there!"

More tears began to fall from his face, and Naruto began to understand the young boy's anger some more. It was likely that Bolt was angry at him per se, he was just angry at the idea of having a father. "Bolt." He spoke gently, approaching the boy slowly before kneeling to be at his height. "Just let it all out. That anger at me, I can take it."

"Why…?" The boy mutter again, before looking at him again, scared, angry eyes meeting calm, remorseful ones. "Why the hell weren't you there!? When me and Himawari did good in school, you weren't there to congratulate us! When we hurt ourselves, you weren't there to tell us it's going to be okay! On our birthday you weren't there!" He began to sob loudly. "Where the hell were you!?"

"I'm here now, Bolt. And I promise I'm not going anywhere from now on-"

"THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH! I don't care where you gonna be! I'm asking where you were! I… I hated not having a dad! It hurt not having a dad! Aren't parent's supposed to know where their kids are hurting!? Didn't you know I was hurting!? Didn't you know where we were!? Didn't you know we were alive!?"

"Bolt… It's not… It's not as simple as that…" He looked in anguish at the sobbing boy. "All I can do is promise you that you won't hurt again. I won't hurt you again…" Carefully, he reached an arm towards the boy's shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" He shouted, slapping his had away, sobbing still. "I don't have a dad! I don't want a dad! I don't need a dad! That's what I've told myself!" He screamed before sprinting off again.

"Bolt!" He stood up quickly, running after the boy.

But his eyes caught the strange illumination that began to envelop the area the boy was running to. To his right, he could see a car approaching the area. And Bolt… was dangerously close to absentmindedly running into its path!

"BOLT!" He sprinted, he was far quickly than the boy. And his full speed allowed him to catch up to the boy quickly. He sprinted into the road to grab hold of the boy, he could hear the screeching sound of brakes and tyres. He saw Bolt's eyes widen as the boy finally caught glimpse of the oncoming vehicle.

In a second he stared at the car and back to Bolt. He already knew it was too late for either of them to move out of the way, even he could manage to push Bolt out the way, it would be too late.

He grabbed the boy and pulled him into his chest, before turning so his back faced the car, and his own body shielded Bolt's smaller frame.

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"Hello!? Yes I need an ambulance please right away! At Hashirama Memorial Park! I tried to stop when the kid came running out into the road, I really did! But this guy shielded the boy! The kid's alright, but the guy! The guy's bleeding really badly from his head!"

'_Who is that?_' He wondered, he felt dizzy, like he had been smacked across the head with something hard.

"Oi, geezer! Naruto!" His eyes began to regain their focus, he saw Bolt's face looking down at him. He could barely feel the tears that fell from his eyes and landed on his face.

"Bolt… You're okay… I'm glad…"

"Why…? After everything I just said to you? Why would you save me?" He heard the boy asked.

"Because… you're my son… and I'm your dad-ttebayo. I told you… that I'd be there for you… from now on… I promised that I'd make sure you were never hurt again… I always… keep my… promises…"

His eyes began to get heavy… really heavy… like he want to have a nice long sleep… '_Sleep… doesn't sound like such a bad idea… right about now…'_

"Oi, Naruto…! Naruto…! Come on, wake up…! Wake up please…. Dad!"

* * *

**A/N:** Me again! Soooo how was it, was it good, bad, mediocre, subpar? So the next chapter will be the finale/epilogue, so stick around for that.

Things to discuss:

\- Like I said earlier, this is a story about Naruto meeting and bonding with his kids, and the final segment to that was Bolt, I haven't seen the Boruto movie but I've got enough material to know that their relationship is strained to say the least. So Boruto was always going to be the final standing point for Naruto becoming the Dad of this family. Boruto is headstrong and angry at his father's absence, and I have tried to portay that in the same way, but under a different context if that makes sense.

\- Funny story, I've probably got enough material planned out to make this 30 chapters long, but I am very tired. I thought if I don't finish it now, and try to reach that 30 chapter mark, this story would never get completed. So I have cut it short, for the sheer sake of it, here are all the plot lines that were cut from the final product:

1 - Adventures in Uzu no Kuni. Initially, Naruto was going to reacted a bit move angrily to the news of his fatherhood, after an arguement with Hinata about why she didn't tell him sooner, and referencing the fact that Hinata kind of did the same thing Shion did, hiding the existance of his children from him (It's doesn't make sense in short form, but trust me, once winded out Naruto's thought processes become a bit more clearer). Naruto bails, and goes to Uzu no Kuni, after a talk with dear old dad, Minato, and some speculations on the credibility of Hinata's claims of Naruto's fatherhood, Jiraiya confirms it by looking at Bolt. Hinata and the kids end up going to Uzu no Kuni to meet the grandparents and take part in wacky, fantastical misadventures.

2 - The return of Shion, plans for Shion to return and... do stuff... and... cause worry... and Hinata's insecurities... and generally just created a problem. I didn't really have that much planned out for this bit.

3 - The introduction of Toneri - some turmoil in the love affair from Hinata's side, ey? That's right, Toneri struts around causing mayhem and shit.

4 - Suna adventure, what could have happened, was the business venture Naruto planned in Suna going to fail!? Find out... Never.

Anyways, thats about it from me. Ta ta


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